The UB softball team felt much better Sunday night than they did Saturday morning.
Buffalo broke a 10-game losing streak when they beat the Western Michigan Broncos in game two of a three-game series Saturday. The Bulls fell in games one and three at the UB Softball Stadium.
UB slugger Breanne Nasti had two homers in the series, giving her five on the year.
Game 1: Nasti Homers But Bulls Come Up Short,/B>
Nasti hit a home run in the bottom of the seventh inning off Broncos pitcher Wendy Cannon to put the Bulls on the board, but it was not enough as the team fell 2-1 to Western Michigan in the first game of their three-game series Friday afternoon.
Buffalo's next hitter, Allison Round, singled to reach first base, but the Bulls left her stranded when Julie Hibner flied to center, Heather Robbins struck out swinging, and Jessica Kensey popped out to first.
Andrea Sage (0-3), pitching in below-freezing temperatures, got the start on the mound for the Bulls and took the loss. She pitched well for six of the game's seven innings but lost her control in the third, leading to WMU's only two runs. Sage walked the bases loaded in the third, then gave up a single to the Broncos' Holly Seals, accounting for all of Western Michigan's offense.
"I wasn't focused," Sage said. "I started throwing low, and the umpire didn't call low. It was not that bad to pitch in this weather, but it took a few innings to get my head together."
Cannon (6-6) gave up only three hits in the game, pitching all seven innings. She overpowered the Bulls with her fastball, then kept them off-stride by using her changeup.
"The changeup was working well," Cannon said. "I was also throwing a rise ball. I stayed mostly low and outside."
Game 2: Cannon's Blunders Lead To Bulls Win,
A wild pitch by WMU's Cannon, who was the winning pitcher in game one, led to a 2-1 Bulls win in 12 innings in game two.
Buffalo's Missy Switzer, who started the 12th at second base thanks to the tiebreaker rule, scored from third on the wild Cannon pitch to win the game. Switzer advanced to third on a successful sacrifice bunt by Hibner.
Regulation college softball games are seven innings long. When a game reaches the 12th inning, teams are allowed to start each extra inning with a runner on second base and nobody out. The batter who made the final out of the previous inning is designated as the runner on second for the tiebreaker rule.
Cannon was called for an illegal pitch in the seventh inning to allow Buffalo to send the game to overtime. With Switzer on third - running for Nasti - and Ann Marie Magur on second, the pitcher rocked herself off the mound before throwing. The third base umpire called the illegal pitch, Switzer scored, and Magur moved over to third on the penalty.
UB starting pitcher Stacey Evans pitched brilliantly, allowing no earned runs on five hits in 11 innings of work. Heather Robbins (2-3) got the win, relieving Evans for the 12th inning.
Cannon (6-7) took the loss for Western Michigan. She came on in place of Broncos starter Leah Setternick, with two outs in the seventh to try for the save.
The game was the longest in UB's Division-I history.
With the win, the Bulls snapped a 10-game losing streak.
Game 3: Nasti's Homer Not Enough as Bulls Fall Short in Rubber Match
Game three featured a seesaw battle, where both teams combined for 10 runs - four more runs scored than the previous two encounters combined. Buffalo could not overcome a 4-0 deficit in the third inning and eventually fell 6-4.
The Broncos jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning behind two singles and a two-run double by Stephanie Scheumann on a grounder that just rolled inside the third base line. They followed that up with two more runs in the top of the third inning on a double, two singles and an intentional walk.
Buffalo knew their bats would have to come alive. In the bottom half of the third inning, Magur stepped to the plate with two runners on and smacked a double to deep right field, scoring both runners, cutting the deficit to two.
Western Michigan was not through though, as they picked up two more runs in the top of the fourth. UB starting pitcher Robbins ran into some trouble, and with two runners on and only one out she was relieved by Sage. She surrendered one hit that scored both runs, charged to Robbins making the score 6-2.
Nasti put the Bulls right back in the contest in the bottom of the fifth, with a two-run bomb over the left center field wall, which once again cut the Broncos lead in half at 6-4.
The Bulls would threaten in the seventh to tie the contest, but runners were stranded on second and third.
Nasti reflected on the three game set.
"I think it was really good for us," Nasti said. "We did a lot of things better than we have. Our pitching was there, our defense was there, all the pieces came together."
