Ithaca Eliminates St. John Fisher
ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Ithaca Bombers (30-13) rallied for a 2-1 win over the St. John Fisher Cardinals in Saturday's fourth and final game of the NCAA regional being held at Ithaca's Kostrinsky Field. The second-seeded Bombers eliminated the fifth-seeded Cardinals to advance to Sunday's consolation bracket final, where they'll face the sixth-seeded Keuka Storm. The winner of that game (note: the time of the Ithaca-Keuka game has been changed to 10 a.m.) will need to beat top-seeded Messiah twice to claim the regional title.
Ithaca, who has made an NCAA-record 24 trips to the Division III playoffs, is a win away from reaching the regional final for the 10th time in the past 13 years.
Left fielder Britt Lillie tied the game at 1-1 with a fourth-inning home run for the Bombers and sophomore center fielder Jennifer Biondi singled home the winning run in the bottom of the fifth.
Lillie's ne-out home run was her sixth of the season and the 16th of her career. She now ranks fourth on the prgoram's all-time list.
An inning later, Biondi's hit plated sophomore Adrienne Walters with the decisive run. Walters entered the game as a pinch-runner for senior Kerry Barger -- who'd led off the fifth with a single, moved to second on a base hit by senior pitcher Alison Greaney and stole third before Biondi's hit.
St. John Fisher took the lead in the top of the third. Shortstop Kelly Jones singled with two outs, then scored on a triple by center fielder Jenn Vanek.
Greaney earned her second win of the day, allowing four hits over seven innings. She allowed only two runners past second and didn't issue a walk. Greaney (12-3) struck out three Cardinals,
St. John Fisher used two-out singles by right fielder Carissa Carlton and left fielder Jennifer Martin to put the tying and go-ahead runs on base in the third inning but the game ended when Greaney deflected a sharply hit ground ball to senior second baseman Kait Dolan, who forced Martin at second base.
