In its first three-game home stand of the season, the Buffalo baseball team took two out of three games from the Miami (OH) RedHawks. A series of timely hits, outstanding pitching, and late-inning heroics helped the Bulls to pull off the near sweep.
In game one of the series the Bulls (10-24, 4-10 Mid-American Conference) were down early, but senior catcher Rick Oliveri hit a solo homerun in the bottom half of the third to tie the game at one apiece.
The RedHawks (12-25,4-11 MAC) regained control from there, tacking on runs throughout the game, and went into the bottom half of the eighth inning with an 8-1 lead.
Even down seven runs, Buffalo showed no signs that they would quit. The Bulls began their rally in the bottom half of the eighth inning when they put up three runs. Sophomore third-baseman Shivam Bhan and junior designated hitter Rob Mancini got things started for Buffalo when they each reached on errors to start the inning. Oliveri would later double them in with a shot to right center, and finished his day an impressive 2-4 with three RBIs. Oliveri scored on an RBI shot by sophomore center fielder Adam Skonieczki.
The Bulls carried their momentum into the ninth inning, scoring four more runs to tie the game at eight. With the game tied, Buffalo called on junior Steve Geltz to pitch the top of the tenth inning. Geltz was perfect, setting the stage for the comeback to be completed. Junior right fielder Chris Ciesla ended the game with a walk-off home run to centerfield, giving Buffalo a 9-8 victory.
"They showed some heart and toughness, and never quit - it wasn't easy," said head coach Ron Torgalski. "They were focused. They were into it. They were kind of feeling like, 'hey, we can come back and make this happen,' and they did."
The momentum from their extra inning win showed in the second game of the series, as the Bulls had a strong shut out pitching performance on their way to a 3-0 victory.
Junior Mike Stangroom threw seven and a third innings surrendering only three hits, and Steve Geltz came on to finish the game. Miami still had no answer for Geltz as he shut them down for the second straight day, earning the save.
Although impressive, the win cannot be solely credited to the pitching performance. Buffalo got on the board early when junior Brian Randazzo reached on an error in the third and was later driven in by Skonieczki's double to right center.
The Bulls would eventually tack on two more runs, one in the fourth, and one in the eighth, which proved to be enough as the dominating pitching performance held the RedHawks scoreless.
"Mike Stangroom came out in that game and kept them off balance all day," Torgalski said. "Mike kept them off balance, he was spotting his pitches and we played good defense behind him and they just couldn't figure him out."
Coming off two wins the Bulls looked to continue their hot steak into the third game of the weekend, but fell just short of the series sweep losing a hard-fought battle by a score of 10-8.
Like the first game of the series, the Bulls fell behind early in the game but refused to give up. Senior Nick Walczak had a big day going 2-3 with a home run and four RBIs, and Skonieczki went 3-5 with three RBIs.
"To win a series from them is big for our program, I think it will be big for the kids' confidence," Torgalski said. "They were happy and excited. It's just too bad we couldn't walk away with the third one."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
