Lynn, MA- A two game weekend against the College of St. Joe's saw the Fisher College Falcons sweep the series and take home the NIAC Conference Tournament Championship. Fisher College won the first game Saturday night 10-6, which also took the time before the first pitch to honor the seniors from both the Baseball and Softball programs, followed up by a 9-6 victory on Sunday afternoon to take the NIAC crown.
The first game of the tournament was a back and forth battle with both teams connecting for some big hits and even bigger plays. After a rocky top of the first from the Falcon squad, which found pitcher Zach LeBlanc allowing one run to come home, the Fisher bats seemed to come alive with seven runs coming off of six hits. The top of the third found the home team up with a commanding 7-1 leader over the visiting College of St. Joe's. The Fighting Saints then found their own bats for a stretch, nabbing five runs over the course of five innings. As the Falcons stepped back up to the plate for the bottom of the 7th inning, the game was fraught with far more tension, as the once 6 run lead had dwindle to just one. This pressure was not enough to slow the Fisher bats down though, with a three hit, three run, inning the lead was extended to four. Jonathan Rosado started the seventh inning action early with a single deep where he was quickly helped to second by a Jose Jimenez bunt single. The bases were then reshuffled after Joshua Rogers reached first on a fielder's choice bunt that found Rosado out at third. An Ivan Rivera walk quickly followed, loading the bases, which was quickly followed by another walk for Sami Bibovic that send Jimenez across for a run. After Haydell Alicea struck out swinging in an attempt to further the lead, Cody Mercier singled which after an error by the Fighting Saints sent both Rivera and Sharpe home to extend the lead to 10-6. The remaining two innings we quickly handled leaving Fisher up one game to nun in the conference tournament.
Game two of the NIAC Tournament was a back and forth battle between both teams, with St. Joe's attempting to get the one run need to split the conference tournament and take the win. The first five innings saw a total of 12 runs evenly split between the two foes. Runs by Mercier, Mitchell Ludholm (2), Angel Perez Vargas, Jonathan Rosado and Aliciea we matched by the Fighting Saints in a bid to keep the game going. As the bottom of the 8th inning appeared, it looked like the scoring madness had settled and this game could be steaming ahead towards extra innings. This changed suddenly after a walk to Alicea was followed up by Mercier being hit by the pitch. With two runner now on base, a break to the 6-6 stale mate was possible. Vargas stepped up to the plate and sent the pitch deep into the parking lot for a three run home run. St. Joe's tried to mount an answer in the top of the 9th inning but it was quickly snuffed out as a double play brought the game to a close and NIAC Baseball Championship to Fisher College.
The Fisher Falcons were back in action Monday night where they dropped the first game of a three game series with #2 Georgia Gwinnett 15-2. They return to action today at 3pm in a double header showdown. The game can be viewed live here.