On Friday afternoon, the baseball team sat in the dugout and watched yet another team celebrate at home plate.
Friday's 5-4 loss would not be the last time the Bulls (7-19, 1-7 Mid-American Conference) would watch Kent State (18-13, 9-0 MAC) celebrate, as they took the final two games of the series (both by a score of 6-3) from Buffalo, bringing the Bulls' losing streak to nine.
"I keep telling my guys, good players make good plays at the end of games," said head coach Ron Torgalski. "Right now we're not making those plays."
The Bulls missed their best opportunity to defeat the three-time defending conference champions on Friday, as they held a 4-2 lead entering the bottom of the ninth. Senior starting pitcher Cameron Copping followed up his 10-inning two-hit performance the week prior with another gem, going seven innings and given up two earned runs.
But Copping's performance was once again all for naught, after a three-run bottom of the ninth let the Golden Flashes walk off with a victory.
"We competed and we played hard, we just haven't learned how to finish a game," Torgalski said. "We play great baseball for six, seven innings, and then somebody makes one mistake here or there that leads to two or three runs, and it happens every game."
Saturday's contest followed the same theme, as the Bulls held a 3-0 lead entering the seventh inning. Senior starter Jeff Thompson followed up Copping's game with a stellar start of his own, throwing six scoreless innings.
Things swung in a familiar direction in the seventh, though, as Kent State knocked Thompson out of the game with a three-run inning. Buffalo turned to senior reliever Kevin Crumb, but he couldn't stop the bleeding. Kent State circled the bases three more times in the eighth, giving it the win and Crumb his sixth loss of the year.
The loss brings Buffalo's record when leading or tied after seven innings to 6-7.
"We need to improve upon being clutch players and playing with confidence," Torgalski said. "We need guys to step up and want to be that guy in the eighth and ninth inning, and right now we have no one stepping up and doing that."
The Bulls' lack of run support is part of the late-inning problems.
Junior catcher Tom Murphy, who is known as an offensive juggernaut, went only 1-for-10 on the weekend, and was even moved down a spot in the lineup for the finale by Torgalski.
What was once the strong spot of the team has now become the liability for Buffalo. The Bulls has failed to score more than four runs in six of their last seven contests. Prior to this stretch the Bulls had only done that four times in the first 19 games.
The problem hasn't necessarily been hitting, as the Bulls are batting .319. They are just failing to score runs when they need to, leaving 29 men on base this weekend alone. Thirteen of those came in Friday's one run loss.
The Bulls have shown bright spots on the mound and at the plate all season long. However, they will need both to have complete games if they want to improve their record.
They'll be given their next opportunity to do so this weekend as Akron (13-17, 6-3 MAC) comes to Buffalo. The Zips are coming off a sweep of fellow MAC team Bowling Green, and they'll look to take that confidence into their series against the Bulls. First pitch will be Friday at 3 p.m.
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