The UB baseball team had never beaten the Miami Redhawks. Coming into last weekend's four-game series, they were 0-4 against the team that reached the MAC tournament last season and had a 35-25 overall record.
By Sunday night nothing had changed . the Bulls are still 0-for-Miami.
Buffalo dropped four games in three days, including a heartbreaker Friday afternoon, at Miami's McKie Field in Oxford, Ohio. The four losses dropped the Bulls to 9-17 overall and 2-10 in the MAC. Miami improved to 20-16 and 7-5 in the conference.
Game 1: UB Surrenders Two Big Leads in Loss
The Bulls led by as many as four runs twice in this contest, but could not hold on as they suffered a 9-8 loss at the hands of Miami Friday afternoon.
Joe Mihalics led off the game with a single followed by a Phil Vanhorne walk, then Brandon Dicesare and Eric Huber put together a pair of RBI's to put UB out in front 2-0. Adrian Daniels used an RBI triple in the second to score Tim Sova, who then scored on a Vanhorne sac fly.
Miami scored three to pull within one, but Sova doubled home two in the fifth and again scored courtesy of a Daniels hit.
The score was 7-5 heading into the bottom of the seventh, and the Bulls Tyler Balentine got the first two men out. After that, it all came crashing down, courtesy of a wild spell that included a Balentine hit batsmen, a walk, and a wild pitch.
Anthony Puccia came in to relieve Balentine, but his first pitch was a single off the bat of pinch-hitter Josh Widlansky that scored two.
Ryan Edgington, who had a big weekend for the RedHawks, scored the go-ahead run by stealing home. Miami added one more run in the eighth to lead 9-7, and the Bulls could only muster up one in the ninth.
Balentine's record dropped to 2-2 as he worked 6 2/3 innings, giving up eight hits and eight earned runs along with eight walks and six strikeouts.
Bayer improved to 6-1 on the season, the win moving him into a tie for second place in career wins by a Miami pitcher with his 27. He allowed seven earned runs in eight innings of work with seven strikeouts. Adam Keel pitched the ninth for the RedHawks and picked up his first save of the year.
Game 2: Bulls Fall Behind Early and Cannot Recover
Miami's Shawn Landis improved his record to 3-0 in the opening game of Saturday's doubleheader that saw the RedHawks triumph, 9-3. Normally a reliever, Landis pitched all seven innings of the game, giving up only six hits.
Miami gave Landis all the help he would need with four first-inning runs off Buffalo hurler Brendan Dunford.
The early rally was sparked by the bat of Edgington, who doubled home two runs as the RedHawks gained the early advantage.
The Bulls climbed back to within two runs before Dunford was victimized again. Edgington struck once more as he doubled as part of a three-run fifth that was capped off when he stole home, giving Miami their last advantage of the game.
Mihalics and Vanhorne were the lone bright spots for the Bulls offensively as they accounted for four of UB's six hits and all three RBI's.
Dunford fell to 3-5 surrendering eight earned runs and seven walks in five innings.
Game 3: Kieninger Stalls Buffalo Hitters
The night cap proved no better for Buffalo as John Sullivan and Nick Bellacose were battered for eleven runs in four innings as UB lost 11-3.
The RedHawks once again exploded for four runs in the first inning with a two-out rally. Andi Scheidt doubled home three first inning RBI's as the 'Hawks looked to continue the trend set earlier Saturday.
Things got even further out of hand in the fourth inning when Miami built up their lead further with a five-run thrashing.
Edgington once again helped to fuel the Miami rally, smacking his third double of the weekend. Junior David Cook followed that up with a single that scored two, and closed out the RedHawk scoring for the day.
Billy Kieninger, another Miami reliever, got an unusual start and made the most of it. Kieninger allowed just six Buffalo batters to reach base and was not damaged until his final inning of work, when the Bulls tallied one run to cut the large deficit to 11-1. He went six innings, striking out three, and improving his record to 3-3.
The Bulls had six hits in the game from six different players: Huber, Daniels, Vanhorne, Andy Wengert, Mihalics and Bryan Zelasko.
Junior lefty Mark McMahon showed promise for Buffalo as he worked four scoreless relief innings, allowing just one hit while striking out three.
Game 4: Bulls Doomed By Nine-run Forth
Miami scored nine runs in the fourth inning in the series finale Sunday afternoon to sweep the Bulls with a 14-3 victory.
Buffalo's Mark Garrard only pitched 3 1/3 innings, giving up 11 runs (eight earned) on seven hits. His record falls to 1-2.
The Bulls committed five errors - two on Vanhorne - in the game while out-hitting Miami 13-9. Buffalo left 15 men on base.
Chris Leonard got the win for Miami to improve his record to 2-2. He pitched six innings and allowed three earned runs while striking out six.
Buffalo will face local-rival Canisius Wednesday at 3 p.m. at the Amherst Pepsi Center Field.
