Golden Eagles keep rolling with shutout against Fisher
- Victor Menendez
- Apr 7
- 3 min read
By: Victor Menendez // Assistant Sports Director
BROCKPORT, N.Y. -- Brockport Golden Eagles baseball won their fifth straight game in a dominant 7-0 win against the St. John Fisher Cardinals on Monday. Golden Eagles two-way player Zach Eldred threw seven scoreless innings and hit his 10th home run of the year in the victory.
"[Fisher] is always a good team," Brockport head coach Justin Beach said. "It's always going to be a dogfight and we went out early and did a lot of good things. Zach [Eldred] pitched great and kept them off the board and he came up with a big hit late. We did a good job putting a game together."
Eldred made his seventh start of the year for the Golden Eagles. His third consecutive start with seven or more innings saw him allow just three hits, three walks and record six strikeouts. Eldred moved to 5-0 on the year with the win and now leads the Empire 8 in ERA (1.66) and strikeouts (48).
"My arm was a little late so when I was trying to reach back for velo I was just leaving it up or spiking it a little bit so I just had to gear up and sink back into my body," Eldred said. "I would have the first pitch ball set the tone for a ball that's going to freeze him later in the at-bat."
The Golden Eagles scored their first run of the game in the first inning as Kyle Blake drove in Josh Indek on what would be his first of four hits on the afternoon.
"I was feeling great, I was seeing the ball well," Blake said. "Just fastballs down, looking for something to drive."
Brockport picked up three more runs in the bottom of the second on some small ball and sloppy defense from the Cardinals. Catcher Jason Mansell drove in a run on a bunt single, then stole second base, drawing a bad throw from the catcher, allowing Matthew Coon to score. He would then reach home himself on a groundout from Frank Vanzillotta.
Benjamin Huckans held the Brockport offense in check for a few innings in relief of starter Patrick McGuire. That would be until the bottom of the seventh when Eldred hit his E8-leading 10th homer of the year to the opposite field to put the Golden Eagles up 6-0.
"I know [Huckans], I played with him," Eldred said. "I know he has a good upper 80s fastball and he likes to throw two-seams to lefties, so staying true oppo approach, trying to swing down on the ball to the shortstop or third baseman. Then a fastball showed up and I didn't miss it."
Brockport added another run on a Mansell sac fly in the bottom of the eighth to make the score 7-0. Eric Servellon threw two scoreless innings in relief of Eldred, racking up four strikeouts and keeping his ERA at zero.
With the win, the Golden Eagles improve to 19-2-1 on the year and 8-0 in conference play. Their pitching staff has put together a 2.68 ERA on the season. They came into the game with the sixth best ERA in the country in D3 according to NCAA.com at 2.81. 2.68 is currently lower than the number one team in the rankings (they haven't updated yet).
"They've been tough," Beach said. "Our pitching coach [Kyle] Canavally is tremendous. He does such a good job with our pitchers. He develops them and makes them better. All of them are solid and we haven't even gotten to the depth and we have a lot of depth on the mound. Guys that haven't pitched a lot are pretty good."
The Cardinals fall to 11-12 on the year with the loss and 6-3 in conference play. They sit in third in the E8 standings.
The Golden Eagles next game will be on Friday as they take on SUNY Poly at home. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
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