Often times, in an effort to further hone skills or to humble any overconfidence that might exist in their players' mentality, coaches will schedule games against difficult opponents. Not only can the team learn from these opponents, but it can also gain experience playing with teams outside of the immediate region.
"We see these early season games as a preparation for the Mid-American Conference ... it's about time that we get in that mindset and try to get into the tournament," said UB head coach Bill Breene about Buffalo's recent spring road trip.
The Bulls traveled to Duke, Towson State, James Madison University and High Point, in which they emerged with a 3-10 record.
Despite starting their season off with such a lopsided record, the baseball team has set modest goals for themselves for the 2003 season.
"The players as a goal for this year aspire to play .500 baseball in the conference. In our three year association with the league, if you're at or around .500, you might get a sixth place spot for the MAC tournament," Breene said.
Recently, the MAC preseason coaches' poll projected Buffalo to finish last in the MAC East.
"I think it's a deserving spot," said Breene. "We use that to motivate ourselves ... I have an experienced team, senior-dominated, and they know what to expect in the MAC for us to move ahead."
Although Coach Breene concedes that the Bulls are deserving of that projection, the three-year young program has been improving ever since its resurrection in the 2000 season after a 20-year absence. After being re-instated as a varsity sport in 1999, UB entered Division I as an independent team in the 2000 season, and subsequently joined the MAC the following year.
While the baseball program itself may be young, leadership issues are non-existent on Breene's team.
"We have ten seniors, that's about a third of our team," said Breene. "We look to our seniors, all of them, to step up. They're coming into their last year of organized baseball, and that's to instill a mentality of team first, stats second."
Starting at catcher is Brandon DiCesare, who started his freshman year playing in right field but has found a home behind the plate. His bat did the talking for his offensive skills as he earned team MVP honors last year with a .331 batting average, 50 hits, and 33 RBI in 43 games that he started.
At first base, senior Kevin Nesteruk shares duties with lefty hitting sophomore Jordan Alcott. Nesteruk was out for most of the season with a knee injury last year, while Alcott appeared in 20 games and hit .222 with five runs scored and four RBI.
At second is one of the team captains, senior Adrian Daniels. Daniels hit .331 last year with a .516 slugging percentage. Daniels went 4-4 this past Monday in the game against Davidson.
At shortstop is the fast, agile, strong-armed Joe Mihalics, who hit .278 last year with 23 runs scored and 15 RBI. Mihalics was also a perfect 8-8 on stolen base attempts.
At third base is senior Bryan Sanchez who became the Bulls' single season and career homerun record holder in just his sophomore year. In his junior year, he led the team in RBI (38), runs scored (32), and slugging percentage (.483), while ending up in second for homeruns and becoming UB's career RBI leader with 117.
The outfield sees the versatile sophomore Phil Vanhorne in left field, who started in 40 out of 43 games last year. He led the team with 14 steals, 28 runs scored, and 98 assists. In center is sophomore John Boom, who hit .241 with 20 run scored and 15 RBI in his freshman campaign. Clint McKeever, Andy Wengert and Brian Zelasko round out the rest of the outfield.
Filling in the DH positions are red shirt freshman Dave Amaro, and sophomore pitcher Chris McGraw, who pitched against Towson in the Bulls' win last Sunday.
The Bulls' pitching staff seems to be the strongest facet on their team, as it is dominated by seniors. The starting rotation includes Tyler Balentine, John Sullivan, Mark McMahon, Kyle Swiatocha, Nick Bellacose, and Jeff Loveys.
Balentine recently pitched against Townson in the double header, allowing only two earned runs and seven hits over six innings. Hard-throwing 6'7" freshman Loveys is expected to make some starts this year.
"He's a kid we're going to run out there whether he's ready or not, to get him some experience because we think he can win in the MAC," Breene said.
Despite an impressive starting staff, due to the youth of UB's baseball program, a true middle relief and closer have been hard to come by. Breene is continuing to experiment with different pitchers in different situations but has not yet found the right formula. Therefore, Breene will look towards his other starters as possible relief pitchers in close games.
While the Bulls may be projected to finish last in the MAC, it is merely a projection. Although they might not show the promise that Kent State or Bowling Green (picked to win the MAC East and West in the coaches' poll) shows for the upcoming season in the MAC, Breene knows that as long as the Bulls finish up with more wins than they had last year, even if it's only one more, he can be satisfied with his team's performance.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
