Seven Bonnies pitchers combine to blank UB in 1-0 victory

Courtesy of GoBonnies.com

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. – Seven St. Bonaventure pitchers combined to shut out Buffalo on the way to a 1-0 victory Wednesday afternoon at sunny Fred Handler Park.

Junior David Vaccaro provided the only offense of the game, blasting a solo home run that ultimately was the difference. With the victory, the Bonnies improve to 19-15 overall while Buffalo falls to 12-25.

The lone run of the game came in the fourth courtesy of Vaccaro. Ahead in the count 3-1, Vaccaro took advantage of a ball left up in the zone by Buffalo starter Greg Dunham by drilling his fifth homer of the year out to left.

That would be enough for the Bonnies pitching staff.

In all, Bonnies pitchers allowed just four total hits and one extra base hit on the afternoon. Brian Pulli got the start and went two innings, allowing one hit and striking out two. Just one other pitcher went more than one inning – James Wetter also posted two scoreless frames with a pair of strikeouts.

Danny Urban, Donovan Moffat and Roman Wild all kept the Bulls off the board in the middle innings while Scott Jerge (1-0) pitched a perfect inning of relief for his first win in a Bonnies uniform. Murphy O’Brien then worked around a two-out single in the ninth for his first career save.

Buffalo never sent a runner past second base and got a man into scoring position just once – that came in the seventh when Chris Kwitzer doubled with two outs. Following that double, Wetter delivered a ground ball on the right side to end the only threat of the day from the Bulls.

Vaccaro had two hits on the afternoon, adding a single in the second.

Next up for the Bonnies is a return to Atlantic 10 play this weekend as they travel to La Salle to begin a three-game set on Friday.

GAME NOTES

• Wednesday is the third shutout of the year for the Bonnies pitching staff. The team lowered its season ERA to 3.93.
• Jerge has not allowed a run in his four outings with the team this spring.
• Pulli lowered his season ERA to 0.79 in seven appearances.
• Cole Peterson walked twice and stole two bases, moving to second in the Atlantic 10 with 15 stolen bases this year.
• Wednesday may have been the last-ever game played between St. Bonaventure and Buffalo on the diamond. The Big 4 rivalry is set to end with UB’s announcement that it plans to drop the sport of baseball following this season.
• Vaccaro and teammate T.J. Baker are tied for the team lead in homers with five apiece. Both players have the most homers by a Bonaventure player in a season since Joel Rosencrance also had five in 2014. The last time an SBU player had more round-trippers in a year was 2010 before the NCAA shift to BBCOR bats.