Baseball Weekend Preview

If you listen to the squad itself, this season is supposed to be the one in which the UB baseball team turns things around and starts building a winning program. To this point in the season, however, little has changed.

The Bulls have stumbled to a 3-12 overall record after they opened their conference schedule last weekend with a pair of losses at Bowling Green.

The good news is that the team has played a tough schedule thus far, having played, among others: Duke, James Madison and Mid-American Conference rival Bowling Green.

"We've learned - and this is the frustrating part - that we can play with these teams," said Buffalo head coach Bill Breene. "But we have to get more consistent with the bat."

This weekend, the Bulls face an important match-up if they hope to play .500 ball like they thought they could at the outset of the season. They travel to Akron, Ohio for a four game series with the Akron Zips.

The teams will play one game Friday night, a doubleheader Saturday and close the series with one game Sunday. The series features two teams that are in very similar situations.

"They're a team that's very much like us," said Breene. "I know (Akron coach) Tim Berenyi pretty well and I think that we're both looking at each other like, 'maybe this is a series where we can get right.' So, I expect them to come at us, especially after we took three out of four games from them last year."

The Zips head into this weekend, the start of their MAC schedule, with a 5-10 record and a little momentum. They have won four of their last six games and they bring in the reigning MAC East Division Pitcher of the Week, senior hurler Frank Mendoza. Mendoza has a 2-1 record on the year and has struck out 17 batters in his 17 innings pitched.

A possible first game match up is Mendoza against UB ace Tyler Balentine. In Balentine's last start, he pitched a complete game, allowing three runs. But, the Bulls dropped the game 3-1 as the offense sputtered, as it has for most of the season.

Along with Balentine, the Bulls will also start seniors John Sullivan and Mark McMahon. UB will also start either Nick Bellacose or Jeff Loveys.

Sullivan comes into the weekend with a 7.62 ERA and a 0-3 record while McMahon's ERA is 6.42 with a 1-2 record. Bellacose would seem to be the front-runner for the fourth spot with a 5.29 ERA and 0-2 record, which is a big improvement over the 18.41 ERA and 0-2 record Loveys currently sports.

Breene says the numbers aren't stellar, but they are misleading.

"A lot of our games we've lost by close margins," said Breene. "I think we need to score runs and make the plays we need to make to support our pitching. But it's difficult to have low ERAs in our league because it's a hitting league. With aluminum bats, (the pitchers' ERAs) are going to be higher."

Breene also feels that the pitchers have done a good job thus far.

" Through the first 15 games, with an exception or two, our pitchers have pitched well enough to give us a chance to win."

Marcus Geiselman, Israel Victor and Shawn Hinssen lead the Zips offense. Geiselman leads the team with a .450 average, nine RBIs and 11 runs scored. Hinssen and Victor are hitting .333 and .312 respectively.

When the Bulls are at bat they will be facing Mendoza, Aaron Gangi, Pat Watt and either Billy McKinney or Matt Halligan. The Zips staff is very similar to the Bulls; only one starter, McKinney, has an ERA under 5.00.

The Bulls hitters, who have had trouble this year, are led by Andrew Wengert, Phil Vanhorne and Adrian Daniels. Wengert is batting .388 and Vanhorne's average is .302. Daniels is batting .288 and has driven in a team leading eight RBI.

Ten of the 14 Bulls who have gotten at-bats this season are hitting below .200.

"We're hitting miserably," said Breene. "I've told them that and they know it. We're grossly underachieving. This is a veteran team and we've got guys who have been playing here every year since the program was reinstated. We've expected a little more out of them."

While the coaches have been patient with the squad thus far, they are expecting improvement soon. If they see none they'll start changing the lineup, Breene says.

"As seniors these guys deserve to work their way out of the slump. But there's going to come a time when we're going to have to make a decision if we want to try someone else. I've got some veteran players who are hitting well below the Mendoza Line and that can't go on for long. We're going to have to make a change for the sake of making a change."

Following this weekend's series with the Zips, UB will open their home schedule with a doubleheader against Le Moyne at the Amherst Pepsi Center on Tuesday, April 1.