Baseball, Men's Tennis both lose Sunday, but racketeers advance to MAC Tourney anyway

Sunday could have gone better for UB, as both teams in action lost home showdowns with MAC opponents. The sliver of good news is that thanks to Binghamton's victory over Ball State today, Men's Tennis claimed the fourth spot in the MAC Championship. Thanks, Binghamton, I guess. Stupid Binghamton.

Baseball's 6-1 loss in the rubber match of the weekend series against Central Michigan comes much in the same fashion as Saturday's loss; CMU scored six runs in the first two innings and never really looked back, holding Buffalo to just three hits, two of which came from Nick Sinay.

That's really all there is to say about that. Adam Aldred pitched the complete game for the Chippewas, striking out five and only allowing a run in the third on consecutive errors from shortstop Zach McKinstry. The Bulls will take on Canisius again this Tuesday before a weekend trip to Western Michigan.

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In Men's Tennis action this afternoon, UB needed a win over conference-leading Northern Illinois to guarantee a spot in the MAC Tournament, but lost 5-2. Thankfully, Binghamton beat Ball State as well, which means the UB-Ball State tiebreaker was used to determine the final spot. Had the Cardinals topped Binghamton, Buffalo would be out.

Today's match went against the Bulls despite UB claiming the first two points, in doubles and in second singles (Damien David). But NIU won the final five matches, three in straight sets, to claim the MAC Regular Season title for themselves.

The 5-2 loss was, believe it or not, the most lopsided MAC contest in either direction for UB this season. The two Bulls wins came by 4-3 margins, and while the other two losses were also 5-2, Buffalo forced third sets in three of their singles losses in each match.

UB has won the doubles point in four straight matches now, starting things consistently on the right foot, but also are struggling to get points from their top two singles. Damien David has won his last two matches, but that only brings he and Pablo Alvarez to 2-8 on the season against MAC competition.

UB will face off with Northern Illinois Friday in the MAC semis. There's no doubt that they can win, and they haven't been routed by any MAC opponent this year, but they've gotten this far cutting it as close as possible - a single set from Amar Hromic against Ball State is the difference between in and out. Starting Friday, Buffalo needs two straight wins.

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John and I will be on tonight to talk everything for an hour. Tune in for the video around 10:30 PM or plan to watch it tomorrow. Go Bulls