Across the country it's common to see the days of summer taken over by kids playing baseball. They make due with what they've got - a fence for first base, or a bush for third.
But rarely do Division-1 baseball teams have to improvise - Buffalo is an exception.
That is the plight of Bulls' baseball. It goes without the amenities that the football or basketball teams enjoy while competing in the Mid-American Conference.
Buffalo doesn't have a field on campus. The Bulls travel across the street to the Northtown Center to use one on its complex. That field is far from a stadium. There is no clubhouse, concession stands, or seating - except for a couple sets of four-bench aluminum bleachers that are as unforgiving as a Buffalo winter.
The Bulls lug their equipment from the locker rooms in Alumni Arena over to their "home" field on days when they can actually practice on it, while other teams have state of the art facilities.
Other days, they are not even on that field, as the Bulls are forced inside Alumni Arena's gym or on the turf of UB Stadium because of weather and field concerns.
All of this has left Buffalo in a unique position: struggling to build a program without fancy luxuries to show potential recruits.
"The fact that we don't have an on-campus facility really hurts us," said head coach Ron Torgalski. "If you go around the [MAC] schools, you're going to see gorgeous facilities. This past weekend we went to Central Michigan and they have a 2,500-seat minor league park on campus."
With all this, Torgalski admits that it's hard to bring recruits to Buffalo and have them be excited about coming here.
"First thing kids say when they come on campus is 'where's your field?" Torgalski said. "Then there's days in the summer when you don't want to show them your field. You'd love to have something on your campus that you can say 'this is ours' and have people say 'wow this is something special.'"
Still, in spite of it all, Buffalo has managed to put a number of successful players on the field this season, including junior catcher Tom Murphy, who was named to the Golden Spikes Award watch list at the start of the season.
A guy like Murphy is someone who Torgalski targets, someone that he can develop into a solid option.
"We've got to be realistic with our recruiting," Torgalski said. "We can go recruit the top-100 players in the country, and realistically I don't think any of them are going to come to Buffalo."
The weather certainly isn't helpful for the sport either. When it's too cold to practice outside, the Bulls are relegated to the gym, where it's harder to develop the necessary skills to compete at the Division-1 level.
"Pitchers will pitch to us inside and they will look like Randy Johnson on the mound because you can't really see the ball," said junior outfielder Matt Pollock. "But when you get [outside] it's so much easier."
The Bulls have been able to overcome these obstacles to a certain point this season. They sit at 7-11 on the year, but have been competitive in nearly every game they've lost.
Buffalo will continue to lug its equipment across the street for the near future as no plans are in the works to build a stadium on campus. However, that won't stop them from trying to build a team to compete for a MAC title.
Email: sports@ubspectrum.com
