St. John Fisher 4, King's 3
Ithaca, N.Y. -- The third-seeded St. John Fisher Cardinals (31-11) withstood a late rally by the seventh-seeded King's Monarchs (24-14) to post a 4-3 win in Friday's first game of the NCAA regional being held at Ithaca College. The Monarchs are eliminated from the double-elimination tournament, which runs through Sunday, and the Cardinals advance to play an elimination game against either Keuka or Rochester at 4 p.m. Friday.
The Monarchs scored once in the bottom of the seventh and put the tying run on first with one out, but St. John Fisher first baseman Carissa Carlson turned a line drive into an unassisted double play to end the game. Second baseman Abbey Knoblauch had led off the bottom of the seventh with a double down the left field line and scored one batter later on a single by shortstop Meaghan Galvin.
St. John Fisher took a 3-0 lead after three innings. Jamie Harmon doubled in a pair of two-out runs in the first and added an RBI single in the third. The Cardinals tacked on their fourth run in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring double by third baseman Kristi Bradley.
King's broke through with two runs in the fifth, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Galvin and a misplayed ground ball off the bat of DeCrency.
Harmon, Bradley and right fielder Samantha Vara each had two hits for the Cardinals.
Knoblauch went four-for-four to lead King's.
Amanda Shevchuk earned the win with a complete-game eight-hitter.