???The men's baseball team may have to start calling Beiden Field its home away from home.
???Last week, the Bulls (7-8) traveled to Fresno, Calif. to compete in the Johnny Quik Baseball Classic.
???The other schools competing were the defending College World Series Champion Fresno State Bulldogs (10-5), the Portland Pilots (11-7) and the California State Bakersfield Roadrunners (4-10).
???Buffalo shot out of the gates with back-to-back, come-from-behind victories.
???The Bulls found themselves down 6-1 to the Roadrunners in the bottom of the eighth inning.
???Junior outfielder Rob Lawler started a Buffalo rally with a solo home run over the left-centerfield wall. Junior catcher Brad Cochrane started the ninth inning by reaching first on an error. Cochrane was then sent to third base by a double off the bat of junior outfielder Bobby Pizzuto.
???Sophomore infielder Kevin McCall came in to pinch-hit and blasted his first career home run over the right field wall, bringing the Bulls within one run of the lead.
???With two outs in the ninth, senior pitcher Chris Ciesla kept Buffalo alive with a single to centerfield and advanced to second base on a stolen base. Junior second baseman Brad Agustin sent the game to extra innings with a double to right center that scored Ciesla.
???The 10th and 11th innings belonged to senior pitcher Zach Anderson, who struck out four batters to keep the Bulls in the game.
???Ciesla came back to the plate with runners on first and second in the 11th. He ripped a single to right field to score junior outfielder Adam Sconieczki to secure the 7-6.
???The clutch play of Ciesla was no surprise to Torgalski.
???"Chris has been hitting it since the beginning of the season," Torgalski said. "He had a good season last year and has continued where he left off. Every time he steps into the box you're expecting him to hit it hard, hit it on the barrel, and have a chance to get on base."
???Bobby Pizzuto was the hero on day two. With Buffalo's game with the Pilots tied 6-6 in the ninth, Pizzuto drove a ball to left center for a double. The hit scored both Lawler and junior third baseman Jacob Rosenbeck.
???Cochrane then scored another run off of a throwing error by the Pilots to give the Bulls a three-run lead, eventually winning by a score of 9-7.
???Pizzuto continued to rebound from a disappointing season a year ago and Torgalski feels he was a key to the team's success.
???"Bobby has been swinging the bat well on this trip," Torgalski said. "He's coming off of a year where he really struggled at the plate and didn't hit it well. So far this season he has a better approach... With his speed it's important for him, in our line-up, to be one of those guys getting on base and stealing some bases for us."
???The Bulls' offense exploded in their second meeting with the Roadrunners. Senior catcher Devin Greeno broke the game open with a triple in the third inning, scoring two runs and giving the Bulls an 8-2 lead early in the contest.
???The Roadrunners got within five runs in the seventh inning, but that would be as close as they would get.
???With a final score of 23-10, the game was highlighted by another solid performance from Pizzuto. He went 3-4 with a homer, a double and six runs batted in.
???The true test for the Bulls came next against last year's national champions.
???In the first meeting at the Classic, the Bulls took a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning off of a single to left center by Pizzuto. The Bulldogs came right back in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-2 lead off of a two-run triple by Danny Muno.
???In the bottom of the seventh, singles by Randazzo and Pizzuto gave the Bulls some life. Sconieczki was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. Ciesla hit a single to shortstop to score Randazzo and tie the game at three.
???Down by one in the top of the eighth, McCall singled to left to score Rosenbeck to once again tie the game at five. Unfortunately, the Bulls fell to the Bulldogs 7-5 on a walk-off home run by Fresno State infielder Tom Mendonca.
???Buffalo would again fall to the Bulldogs on the final day of the Classic, losing 20-0. This loss was on the heels of a 19-6 pounding by the Portland Pilots the day before.
???The Bulls have lost to the Bulldogs four times this season, but were competitive in two of those games.
???Torgalski thinks it will be a good learning experience for his team.
???"In the end, we're 5-5 in the ninth inning and we lost on a walk off homer," Torgalski said. "After playing close the first game [6-3 loss on March 7] we went in with the mind set, 'Hey we can beat these guys.' It was good to see, at the end of that game, guys disappointed that we didn't win and weren't excited at the fact we played them close."
???Torgalski attributed the losses to a depleted pitching staff.
???"We just ran out of arms," Torgalski said. "Late in the week, guys have thrown a lot of innings and we were left scrambling."
???Even with the disappointing end to the Classic, Torgalski found positives in the overall play of his team.
???"For the week we competed, we've been in a lot of close games," Torgalski said. "It's something you want in non-conference. I think it's going to really prepare us for conference play... In the end, our focus was to develop a few guys so that when conference play starts we're a deeper and better team than we were last year."
???See Friday's issue of The Spectrum for coverage on Tuesday's doubleheader against St. Bonaventure.
