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NCAA Baseball - Buffalo defeats Akron

The Bulls won a rain shortened series with Akron and in the process lowered their magic number from 12 to 10.

UB Athletics

Buffalo entered the weekend in full control of their own destiny and did not disappoint. The only thing no going UB's way all weekend was the weather. UB took two form Akron before Sunday's rain out let Kent gain a half game on Buffalo. Even with the lost game UB's two wins give them their sixth series win and extend UB's MAC winning streak to five games.

Buffalo also set a new record for conference wins in a season and tied the schools record for overall wins in a season since restarting the program in 1999.

Game 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Buffalo (22-17-0) 1 0 3 1 0 2 0 0 0 7 11 1
Akron (9-30-0) 1 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 15 0

Game one saw UB turn to Ben Hartz for long relief when things started badly. Hartz did the job helping UB to climb back into the lead before River McWilliams came in for the save.

Mike McGee had a rough go of things early on. In the Bottom of the first, with a 1-0 Akron tied the game and then blew up for four runs in the second. Hartz finished up the second and then UB's batters want to work in hopes of salvaging the game.

In the third UB would score three runs. Mike Scarcello led off with a single, and Topps would bunt his way on base for a single. Akron would get Scarcello at home to on a fielders choice but UB was relentless. Tyler Mautner hit a double down which scored Topps and Baldock,. Kyle Figgins then capped the inning with a single back up the middle.

In the top of the fourth UB tied the game when as Jon Mestas was hit by a pitch, then stole second with one out. Then a Mike Burke single and a sac fly by Scarcello brought Mestas home. It would not be long before Akron would retake the lead.

Devon Ahart led off the inning with a triple, and scored on a sac fly to put the home team back up, 6-5. With two runners on and just one out Topps may have saved the game when he gunned down a Zips runner at home to secure the second out. Hartz would allow another hit to load the bases, but pitched his way out of trouble.

The Bulls would take the lead back for good two innings later when Kyle Figgins led off with a hit and moved to second on a wild pitch. Mestas doubled him home to make it 6-5. Mestas would himself score on a Burke sacrifice fly.

Game 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Buffalo (23-17-0) 0 0 1 0 2 3 0 0 1 7 9 0
Akron (9-31-0) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 5 4

In game two the Zips would have trouble in the field, four errors led to five Buffalo unearned runs. The Bulls though had no trouble fielding the ball.

Kanzler started out the scoring in the top of the third by putting a solo shot over the fence, he now leads the MAC in home runs with eight. The lead would move to 3-0 after the fifth inning when UB socred two runs set up by a Jimmy Topps double, and and Alex Baldock. Akron failed a pickoff attempt and both Bulls moved into scoring position. Tyler Mautner would then hit his second run-scoring double of the series.

Akrons real trouble came in the sixth when the Zips self destructed. UB scored three runs despite not recording a single hit. Jon Mestas led off with a walk, and Mike Burke would also earn a free pass. A wild pitch would put them both in scoring position before a walk to Mike Scarcello would load the bases with only one out. Two runs would score on an error, and Scarcello would later score on a passed ball.

Akron would threaten in the 9th when with two outs they loaded the bases. River McWilliams came in to record his second save of the weekend, striking out Devon Ahart to end the game with the bases still loaded.

Buffalo's next MAC series will be against the Ohio Bobcats.