???After this past weekend, the baseball team won't be looking forward to leaving Amherst Audubon Field anytime soon.
The Western Michigan Broncos (9-21, 4-8 Mid-American Conference) came to Buffalo on Friday for a MAC showdown with the Bulls (14-18, 3-8 MAC), who have been locked in on offense for the past week.
???The Bulls combined to score 35 runs in the three-game, racking up 40 hits to win two of the three games against the Broncos. Buffalo went into Sunday's contest on a four-game winning streak, the longest streak since the team reentered Division I back in 2000.
???Buffalo head coach Ron Torgalski attributes the team's success to finding their comfort zone.
???"It's great to be home," Torgalski said. "I thought we played with a lot of energy. Overall, we're swinging it well."
???Western Michigan took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning of game one before Buffalo's bats woke up.
???Junior second baseman Brad Agustin gave the Bulls the lead with an RBI single that scored senior left fielder Eric Flynn. Junior third baseman Jacob Rosenbeck followed with a two-run double to left field that made the score 5-1.
???With two outs in the top of the eighth, Broncos center fielder Tim Cross brought Western Michigam within two with a bases loaded triple to left center to cut the score to 8-6.
???That, however, would be the closest the Broncos would come, as Agustin hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to score Flynn and give the Bulls the 9-6 victory.
???Sophomore pitcher Jesse Reinstein picked up the win for the Bulls, going 5.1 innings and allowing two earned runs while striking out three batters. Picking up his second save of the season, senior pitcher Zach Anderson struck out one batter in 1.1 innings of work.
???The Bulls continued to roll in game two, capturing a 12-3 win, highlighted by another solid outing from junior pitcher Pierre Miville-Deschenes.
???Miville-Deschenes went for seven innings, giving up only two runs on three hits and striking out five batters. The win was his fourth of the season as he continues to be the rock of the Bulls' pitching staff.
???The importance of Miville-Deschenes to the team has not gone unnoticed by the coach.
???"[Pierre] has been great," Torgalski said. "He's been a guy that has been able to go deep into games and preserve our bullpen a little bit. He's a bulldog. He can throw a lot of pitches and he gets after it."
???Junior first baseman Rob Lawler gave the Bulls an early 2-0 lead in the second inning with a titanic triple to the centerfield wall to score senior designated hitter Chris Ciesla.
???Lawler continued his hot streak with a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 7-0.
???After a week that earned him MAC East Player of the Week honors, Torgalski said that he feels Lawler is really starting to take off.
???"Rob's been swinging it," Torgalski said. "He's being aggressive and seeing some balls he can hit and getting the barrel on it, which is giving us a huge lift."
???After giving up two runs to the Broncos, the Bulls shut the door in the eighth inning. The team scored four runs on three RBI singles by Agustin, junior centerfielder Adam Sconieczki and junior right fielder Charlie Karstedt.
???Ciesla, Agustin and Lawler combined to go 7-for-14 with five RBIs and four runs scored in the game to lead the Bulls.
???The Broncos won the final game of the series in a slugfest, 14-13. The Bulls bats continued to sizzle, but the team could not find much success on the mound.
???Torgalski knew his team would have to put up a lot of runs in the series finale.
???"We knew we'd get into Sunday and have to get into a slugfest," Torgalski said. "We've been thin on the mound; we got a couple guys hurt and we just didn't make plays when we needed to today."
???After falling behind 3-2 in the early stages of the game, Skonieczki came up with the bases loaded and two outs in the second inning and blasted a triple to right center to clear the bases. Lawler followed the formula set forth by his teammate when he drove a triple to right to score two runners, which gave the Bulls an 8-3 advantage.
???Rosenbeck closed out the scoring with a double down the left field line to score Lawler.
???The Broncos would tie the game in the top of the fifth with six runs. Western Michigan jumped out to a 13-9 lead after scoring four runs in the top of the seventh inning.
???With consecutive RBI singles in the bottom of the seventh, Ciesla and Rosenbeck would bring the Bulls within two runs. The Broncos scored a run in the top of the eighth to go up 14-11.
???Karstedt and Ciesla drove in one run each in the bottom of the inning to close the gap, but the Bulls would fall short in the ninth.
???Freshman reliever River McWilliams lost his second game of the season after allowing three runs in an inning of work.
???According to Torgalski, every MAC game is important from now on. He really has his team focused on what their goal is.
???"From now on we have to go into [MAC] weekends looking to take three," Torgalski said. "We need to get back into the playoff race and find a way to be one of the top eight [teams] left in the end."
???Torgalski is reminding his team that the key to winning is to build on what is done well.
???"The guys' approach at the plate has been good," Torgalski said. "We've been aggressive and we took advantage of some of their miscues during the week and we just need to continue it."
???See Friday's issue of The Spectrum for coverage on Buffalo's matchups against the LeMoyne Dolphins and the Canisius Golden Griffins.
