SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The Ithaca College baseball team led No. 23 St. John Fisher College, 3-0, through three innings, but was unable to hold on and Fisher came back to defeat Ithaca, 5-4, on Sunday evening at Onondaga Community College in what was both teams' Empire 8 Conference openers. Ithaca is now 6-5 on the season, while Fisher moves to 7-5.

Ithaca jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first inning on back-to-back two-out opposite field singles by senior Ryan Henchey and sophomore Andrew Bailey. Sophomores Webb Little and Sam Little scored on the base hits.

The Bombers' lead grew to 3-0 in the third inning after W. Little led off with a triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly by S. Little.

Fisher got on the board in the top of the fourth on a lead-off solo home run from Scott Eisenmenger. The Cardinals then tied the game up at 3-3 in the sixth on three hits, and had a chance to add more by loading the bases with one out, but sophomore Jake Binder buckled down and induced an inning-ending double play.

In the bottom of the eighth, Ithaca put two runners in scoring position with one out but was unable push a run across. A potential run was thrown out at the plate on a groundball to shortstop and then the side was retired on a strikeout.

Fisher took the lead in the top of the ninth on consecutive singles to right field, which brought in two runs, and gave the Cardinals a 5-3 advantage.

The Bombers got back to within one run in the bottom of the ninth on a solo shot by senior Trevor Thompson. Prior to the homer, Fisher's shortstop robbed W. Little of a base hit up the middle with a diving stop which would have tied the game on Thompson's round tripper.

Sophomore Andrew Bailey took the loss in two innings of work. Bailey allowed two runs on two hits with three strikeouts. Sophomore Jake Binder started for the Bombers and lasted seven innings, and gave up three runs on 10 hits.

The Bombers are scheduled to host No. 12 SUNY Oswego on March 28 at 4 p.m. for their next game.