Courtesy of UBBulls.com
KENT, OH – The University at Buffalo baseball team was blanked by first-place Kent State on Saturday afternoon at Schoonover Stadium by the score of 5-0. With their second straight loss, the Bulls fall to 14-28 overall and 6-14 in MAC play.
After a scoreless first inning, the Golden Flashes got on the board first in the second inning as Conner Simonetti took UB starter Charlie Sobieraski deep to right center field, giving Kent State the 1-0 lead after two innings.
The Bulls threatened to tie the game or take the lead in the top of the fourth inning as Chris Kwitzer and Andrew Taft hit back-to-back singles before Ben Haefner worked a walk to load the bases. Kyle Brennan then dug in but grounded out to end the Bulls threat in the fourth.
The Golden Flashes made the score 2-0 in their favor in the bottom half of the fourth as Tim Dalporto connected on a solo home run to left field.
The Buffalo offense went cold over the next three innings as they couldn’t record a hit. The Golden Flashes were then able to add two runs in the bottom half of the seventh inning as Luke Burch tripled to right center to score a pair of runs, making the score 4-0 in favor of the home team.
Kent State added another run in the bottom half of the eighth inning to make the score 5-0. Buffalo had one final chance to break through with a run in the ninth as Vinny Mallaro, Haefner and Brennan each singled to load the bases but Brian Wasilewski struck out swinging to end the threat and the game for the Bulls.
Bobby Sheppard had a solid day at the dish for the Bulls as he went 3-for-4, his team-best 15th multi-hit game of the season. With the three-hit effort, Sheppard saw his batting average rise to a team-best .333 on the year and he has reached base successfully in 16 straight games for the Bulls.
Haefner finished off his game going 2-for-2 with two walks while Mallaro extended his hitting streak to 11 straight and his reaching base streak to a career-best 21 games as he finished 1-for-4 on the day.
In the loss, Sobieraski went 7.2 innings while allowing eight hits, five runs and striking out seven batters. Ben Vey made his 10th appearance on the mound, forcing a fly out to get UB out of an eighth inning jam.
The two teams will meet up on Sunday at 1:00 pm in the final game of a three-game set at Schoonover Stadium. Shawn Dubin (1-4, 5.01 ERA) will take the mound for the Bulls on Sunday.
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