Spring breaks and bruises

Despite the sunny weather, three tournaments in Florida over the spring vacation meant bad luck for Buffalo softball, as the team endured a slew of injuries and went 3-14 over a week-and-a-half of play.

"It could've been better," head coach Marie Curran said. "The weather was great and we played a lot of games, but a total of four starters got hurt."

During the road trip, senior infielder Lauren Picciano broke her arm, junior infielder Colleen Greene received a concussion while attempting to field a ground ball and freshman outfielder Erin Zilka, who was hit by a pitch in the arm, also pulled her hamstring.

To top it all off, junior outfielder Mary Russell, who is also the Bulls' leadoff hitter, strained her rotator cuff but played through the injury because of the shortness of players available.

Although the injuries may have kept the Bulls from winning more games, it did give the younger players a chance to gain some valuable experience.

"A lot of our younger players were able to play," Curran said. "Ashley Kanavy came in and played second base. She got her first collegiate hit. We are really excited about her. It's a nice surprise."

The first of the three tournaments Buffalo played over the break was the Adidas Tournament in Clearwater. The Bulls (8-17) opened up play on March 9 losing to the Temple, 7-3, and then to the No. 2 nationally ranked Tennessee Volunteers, 9-0.

"It was really exciting playing against them," Curran said about facing Tennessee. "The Tennessee coaches remarked on how well Sophie (Barstad) pitched. Defensively, we were nervous but we held our own against them. It was exciting playing against that caliber of a team."

The next day Buffalo dropped two more games, first to Hofstra, 7-1, and then to North Carolina State, 5-2. The team picked up its first win of the trip when they split games on March 11, losing to UIC, 3-1, and then securing its only win of the tournament by beating Boston University in 10 innings, 7-4. The team closed out the tournament with a 7-3 loss to Jacksonville.

The Bulls then went on to Tampa to compete in the USF Spring Break Tournament where they went 1-3 overall. The two-day event saw Buffalo fall to conference foe Northern Illinois 9-0 in a game that did not count towards the conference records, and then to the host South Florida, 6-3, on March 14.

The next day saw the Bulls split games as they lost to Fordham, 15-5, and then shut out of local rival Canisius, 8-0.

For the third tournament, Buffalo partook in USF Speedline Invitational, splitting games on March 17 with a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Dartmouth and then avenging its previous loss to Fordham with a 7-4 victory.

The Bulls went winless the next day when they were shut out by Illinois-Chicago, 2-0, and fell just short to Elon, 5-4. Buffalo finished the invitational by splitting two games for the third time. After starting the day with a 3-2 win over George Mason, the Bulls fell to another conference opponent, the Ohio Bobcats, 13-4.

Although the score was lopsided, Curran was still pleased with how her team performed against Ohio.

"We didn't show off our best team and still played well against Ohio," Curran said. "We didn't want our ace going against them and getting a look. They played their best team against us and we managed to score runs on them."

The Bulls will next hit the diamonds when they venture down Main Street for a rematch against the Golden Griffins on Wednesday at the Demske Sports Complex in Buffalo. With 25 games under their belt, Wednesday's contest will be the first game this season the Bulls have played outside of Florida.