Buffalo baseball waited 18 games and 34 days to play its first home game of the 2006 season, but the Bulls had to wait 24 more hours to finally take to the diamond at Amherst Audubon Field after poor weather conditions forced the team to cancel Friday's game against Central Michigan.
On its home field for the first time, Buffalo lost both games in a Saturday doubleheader, 5-0 and 8-0, and was swept aside 12-0 on Sunday by the Chippewas to go scoreless for the weekend.
After being so patient to play in Western New York again, the Bulls' first conference victory will still have to wait.
Buffalo combined for just four hits in the doubleheader.
"They have good pitchers," said Bulls head coach Bill Breene. "But we've seen good pitching before, and we hit the ball and we put it in play. For some reason this weekend, we had two hits in both games yesterday, and only scratched out four or five today. It seemed like all weekend the kids were finding themselves in a hole. It went on and on and we never got out of it."
A strong effort from the Buffalo pitching staff in the first game of the series was not enough to pull out the win. Bulls pitchers allowed just two earned runs in the game, but behind a dominant performance by senior starting pitcher Ty Dunham, Central Michigan (12-9, 3-0 Mid-American Conference) spoiled Buffalo's home opener with a victory.
Dunham baffled the Bulls hitters all day long. The senior pitched a complete game shut out and struck out nine Buffalo hitters.
Just two Buffalo batters managed to get a hit in the contest. Freshman right fielder James Piazza came up with one out and singled in the bottom of the third inning, and freshman third baseman Jacob Rosenbeck reached base with a single to lead off the bottom of the fifth.
The nightcap of the doubleheader mirrored the preceding game as the Bulls again fell to the Chippewas by a score of 8-0.
Eerily similar statistically to the first game, Buffalo (4-17, 0-3 MAC) again was shutout. Central Michigan was again led by a remarkable pitching performance, and the Bulls again could only muster two hits.
The comparisons didn't end there. Coincidentally, lone hits for Buffalo came off the same bats as in the first game. Piazza and Rosenbeck again were the only Bulls to muster up a hit against Chippewa sophomore starter Josh Collmenter.
In eight innings of work, Collmenter struck out 14 Bulls batters, and when he left the game following the eighth inning he, like Dunham, allowed no earned runs.
"I don't know if it's the pitching or the approach the kids are taking when they get to the plate," Breene said. "I do think they're taking too many good pitches and putting us in bad hitting counts. You hope someone is going to snap us out of it."
In the first two innings on Sunday, Central Michigan squandered opportunities to jump out to an early lead.
With Chippewa runners on second and third base and just one out in the first, the Bulls were able to dodge a bullet when sophomore starting pitcher Shane Wolf struck out the cleanup hitter, and got the next batter to ground out to end the inning.
In the second inning, with runners on first and third and no outs, a Central Michigan base runner was thrown out attempting to steal second. Wolf pitched himself out of another jam, when he struck out the next two batters, again leaving a Chippewa player stranded on third base.
After the second inning however, the Bulls had trouble keeping Central Michigan off the scoreboard. The Chippewas scored a run in each of the next six innings, included a five-run sixth inning, to put Buffalo away by a final score of 12-0.
"We're in a funk and we have to battle our way out of it," Breene said. "I know these guys are lacking confidence. The only thing that's going to fix that is coming out and finding out how to hit, and do their thing. Hopefully it comes Wednesday when we play Canisius."
The Bulls were shutout for the third time in as many games, and were again mired in a collective slump at the plate. Buffalo only managed five hits in the contest, and nine hits in the entire three-game series. Sophomore second baseman Mike Folli was the only Bulls player with multiple hits in any game over the weekend. Folli went 2-for-4 on Sunday.
Up next for the Bulls is a battle with Canisius. The Bulls will look to snap their losing streak when they travel to play the Griffins at 2 p.m. on Wednesday.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
