For the first time all season, the Buffalo softball team played home games at Nan Harvey Field over the weekend. After a slow start losing both games on Friday, the Bulls rebounded to win on Saturday but fell again on Sunday afternoon.
In Friday's first game, Mid-American Conference rival Miami (OH) (19-20, 9-4 MAC) scored early and often. The RedHawks jumped out to a very quick 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning and added runs in the second and third innings to bring the score up to 7-0.
"You don't want to use nerves as an excuse, but the girls were a bit hyper," said Head Coach Marie Curran, referencing to the excitement and emotion that comes with playing in a home opener.
Sophomore Kristen Gallipani answered in the bottom half of the third for Buffalo (5-27, 2-10 MAC), blasting a solo shot over the left field fence. The home run was Gallipani's team-leading fourth of the season, and also represented Buffalo's only run of the game.
Sophomore pitcher Katie Ivancich took the loss for the Bulls, as Miami would tack on two more runs for a 9-1 win.
Friday's second game was much closer. Buffalo's sophomore hurler Sharon Barr tossed a three-hit gem, but the Bulls' offense failed to capitalize, falling by a score of 1-0.
The game was scoreless in the third inning when Miami's Meghan Mawn poked a double to center, scoring Halle Popson for the 1-0 lead the RedHawks wouldn't relinquish.
The Bulls out-hit Miami in the nightcap, with Barr and seniors Mary Russell, Marcy Hansen and Lacy Schneider contributing a hit apiece, but the team could never quite connect at the right times.
"We hit the ball just as well," Curran said. "The difference was that they hit the ball with girls on base and we hit the ball just to get on base."
With Miami behind them, the Bulls shifted their focus to Ball State on Saturday afternoon in a hard-fought game between both teams. Buffalo recovered from a 3-0 deficit to eventually win the game in extra-innings, with a final score of 4-3.
Following a scoreless first inning, Ball State (29-21, 5-4 MAC) got themselves on the board in the second with an RBI double from Kamilah Holle, who would return to the plate later in the fourth to blast a two-run homerun to centerfield. Down 3-0, it wasn't looking as though Saturday's match-up would end any better for the Bulls than Friday's.
Buffalo took a chunk out of Ball State's lead in the bottom half of the fourth inning, when a single from Schneider knocked Russell in from third for the Bulls' first run of the day.
Buffalo tied the game in the bottom of the seventh, when Russell delivered a clutch two-out double to the right-centerfield gap, driving two Bulls base-runners across the plate and tying the game at three, forcing extra innings.
An uneventful eighth inning gave way to the bottom of the ninth, when Gallipani ripped an offering from Ball State pitcher Elizabeth Millan over the fence for her fifth round-tripper of the season; this one of the "walk-off" variety.
The win column is relatively uncharted territory for the Bulls this season, but it is an area in which they feel they belong, and where they hope they'll be returning with greater frequency as the season progresses.
"We definitely feel like we're putting all the parts together," Curran said.
The Bulls fell to Ball State again on Sunday, 6-1. They will look to string together a few wins against Niagara in a pair of non-conference contests on Wednesday afternoon. The first pitch of the day/night doubleheader against the Purple Eagles is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
