By Paul Gotham
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The sun shone brightly Friday afternoon. Something it hasn’t done often of late in Western New York. Maybe this rare occurrence added to the impact of its glare.
Whatever the case when Nick Sinay lifted a fly ball into left field to start the bottom of the ninth, the UB right fielder knew to expect anything.
Six batters later Buffalo walked off with its second win in as many tries.
UB (14-12/5-4) tallied twice in their last at bat to defeat Western Michigan’s Broncos (13-16/4-6), 8-7 in Mid-American Conference action at Tribune Field on the campus of Monroe Community College.
Kyle Figgins drew a bases-loaded two-out walk to force home Matt Pollock in an inning which should have started with an out.
“I got a good pitch it was kind of up and in a little bit,” Sinay said of his leadoff fly ball. “I knew the sun was getting real bad…Baseball is crazy. Mistakes happen all the time. I was just lucky enough he wasn’t able to grab it.”
With Sinay running through the play he was able to take advantage when Western Michigan left fielder Jordan Tillman lost the ball in the sun.
Pollock doubled home Sinay to knot the score at seven.
“You know what, Sinay is tough,” UB coach Ron Torgalski stated. “He makes things happen. That’s huge..That was a big play.”
Mike Burke reached on an intentional walk before an error loaded the bases.
Cory Folk picked up the win in relief. The right-hander worked an inning and two-thirds of shutout ball. He came on with bases loaded and no outs in the eighth and held the Broncos to two runs in the stanza. The senior is 2-1 on the season.
UB’s comeback got Kevin Hughes off the hook. The redshirt senior started and allowed seven runs (four earned) over seven-plus innings of work. He dealt with baserunners in every inning pitched as he surrendered 13 hits and walked two.
“Kev’s a gamer,” Torgalski said. “He’s a competitor. He wants to be in tough situations. He knew early on they scored some they shouldn’t have. We threw it around a little bit. We didn’t play solid defense, but he competed. It would have been very easy for a guy to put his head down and quit at that point. But he’s not that type of kid. He put up some zeroes and gave us a chance.”
UB tagged Western Michigan starter Steve Laudicina for three runs on three hits in the first. Jimmy Topps led with a hit. Sinay walked, and Pollock loaded the bases with a single center. Tyler Mautner put the Bulls on the board with a double down the right field line. One out later, Vinny Mallaro made it 3-0 with a sacrifice fly.
“Vinny did a good job all day long,” Torgalski added. “He did what he had to do. That’s what we look for. That’s what we teach. A guy in scoring position and get something you can lift.”
Western Michigan scored three runs on three errors in the third.
“We got to be able to make those plays,” Torgalski commented. “I told the guys ‘we gave up a bunch of runs there.'”
Torgalski made note of lineup changes for the game.
“I tried something with my infield today moving some guys around, and I think I may have disrupted what we’ve been doing.”
The teams traded pairs of runs before the Broncos tallied twice in the eighth.
Mike Scarcello plated Mallaro with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the frame.
Pollock paced UB with three hits and three runs scored.
Sinay, a 2013 New York Collegiate Baseball League All-Star, walked twice and scored twice.
Andrew Sohn and Brett Sunde both collected three hits for the Broncos. Jared Kujawa drove in four for Western Michigan.
Gabe Berman took the loss. The sophomore is 1-2.
The teams square off Saturday afternoon at MCC for game two of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm.
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