Courtesy of UBBulls.com
BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo baseball team (16-31, 8-13 MAC) dropped their third straight MAC game to the Ohio Bobcats on a rain-filled Sunday afternoon at Audobon Field. The Bobcats were able to score three unearned runs en route to the series sweep of the Bulls on Senior Day for Buffalo.
Getting the start in his final game at home for the Bulls on Sunday, Brent Cleland had a great outing despite taking the loss on the mound. The Toronto, Ontario native went 6.2 innings while allowing six hits, two unearned runs and struck out one batter in the loss.
Cleland was cruising for the Bulls through the first two innings before allowing a leadoff double in the third inning to give the Bobcats a runner in scoring position with no outs. The righty was then able to tighten up and forced a pair of flyouts and a groundout to get out of the inning unharmed.
The Bulls threatened to get on the board first in the fifth inning as seniors Kyle Brennan and Brian Dudek notched back-to-back singles with one out. The Bulls weren’t able to produce a run in the inning as the final two batters struckout swinging.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Bobcats finally broke through with a pair of runs in the seventh to force Cleland from the mound and take the 2-0 lead. The Bobcats opened the inning with a single before a Buffalo error gave the visitors runners on the corners with one out. Ohio then executed a perfect suicide squeeze play to score the first run of the game. Cleland was pulled in favor of Logan Harasta after getting the second out of the inning. Harasta then threw a wild pitch back to the backstop to score the second run of the inning for the Bobcats before he got the final batter to strikeout.
Ohio threatened to add to their lead in the eighth inning but Harasta was able to strikeout the final two batters of the inning to send the game to the bottom of the eighth. In the Bulls half of the inning, Connor Regan hit a two-out double down the right field line but was stranded at second after a groundout.
The Bobcats added a run in the ninth inning to take the 3-0 lead as they notched a double, a Buffalo error and a sacrifice fly to right field to produce the third unearned run of the game.
UB went 1-2-3 in the final inning as the Bobcats held onto the 3-0 win on Senior Day at Amherst Audobon Field.
Harasta finished off his game going 2.2 innings while striking out five batters and allowing just two hits and one unearned run as he came into the game in the seventh inning in relief of Cleland.
The Buffalo offense was able to produce just four hits on the afternoon as Regan finished with the lone extra base hit, a double, as he went 1-for-3. Dudek and Brennan each went 1-for-3 in the loss while Chris Kwitzer connected on a single in the second inning to extend his hitting streak to five straight games. Kwitzer is 8-for-13 (.615) over his last four games for the Bulls.
Prior to the game, the Bulls honored a 10-man senior class as part of Senior Day at Audobon Field. The 10 seniors that were honored on Sunday were Alex Thrower, Tyler Utz, Don Kilian, Ben Haefner, Brent Cleland, Alec Tuohy, Chris Kwitzer, Brian Dudek, Vinny Mallaro and Kyle Brennan.
The Bulls will return to Amherst Audobon Field on Tuesday afternoon for their final home game as they welcome the Niagara Purple Eagles. First pitch will be at 3:00 pm on Tuesday.
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