With spring breakers out of town for a week of sun and sand, the softball team continued play on the diamond as it traveled to the West Coast for two tournaments in a nine-day span.
Starting in San Diego, Calif., the Bulls competed in the San Diego Classic and continued up the coast for the Long Beach State Tournament to round out the week.
Head coach Jennifer Teague understands that her team didn't finish as well as it would have liked, but is convinced that facing fierce competition will only help prepare her squad for the end of the season.
"We went cold at the end of the week," Teague said. "If you look at the competition across the country, we've played some of the toughest teams a MAC squad can face. I wanted to challenge them mentally and physically and I think these games did a good job of that…I'm encouraged by some of the things I saw this week and I think we'll be right where we want to be come conference time."
San Diego Classic
In the first of 12 total games over the break, the Bulls (7-12) met Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (8-8) in Friday's matinee and fell to the Mustangs, 4-2.
A pair of freshman infielders got the ball rolling for the Bulls. Alyssa Ward hit an RBI single in the first inning to bring home Ashley Bertot, giving the Bulls the early 1-0 lead.
The rest of the game, however, did not play out as well as Buffalo hoped. The Bulls
gave up four unanswered runs in the third inning. Buffalo answered back with a run of its own in the fifth inning, but it was not enough to complete the comeback.
In the second of Friday's double-header, Buffalo matched up against host San Diego (3-8). Despite falling behind by two runs in the first inning, Buffalo battled back to down the Toreros, 4-3, in nine innings.
Sophomore infielder Kristin Waldron began the comeback with an RBI single to bring home freshman infielder Andi Saucier. Errors in the field by San Diego allowed freshman outfielder Taylor Franich to add to the rally, and Ward singled to bring Waldron home from third base to give the Bulls a 3-2 lead at the end of the third.
San Diego didn't give up and tied the score in the top of the seventh to force the game to extra innings.
But it took the Bulls just two extra innings to close out the Toreros. In the bottom of the ninth, Saucier singled and junior outfielder Candice Sheehan added a single of her own to have runners on first and second. Waldron stepped up to the plate and made the most of her opportunity by smacking a double to score the winning run.
The Bulls entered Saturday intent on continuing their winning ways as they met Wisconsin (7-13).
Once again the Bulls found themselves in a 4-0 hole entering the fifth inning but Buffalo's bats heated up as the Bulls exploded for eight runs against the Badgers and earned their second win-in-a-row for the first time this season with an 8-4 victory.
Junior infielder Alex Bejarano along with Sheehan and Franich each had an RBI of their own in the fifth inning, while Waldron added a triple to deep center field to add two more RBIs. Buffalo's five-run fifth inning catapulted the team to three more runs in the sixth frame to close the door on any Wisconsin comeback attempt.
In the victory, Waldron tied the school record for most triples in a career with seven.
In what was the final game of the tournament, Buffalo fell to Long Beach (10-12) in the second game of Saturday's double-header.
With senior pitcher Sharon Barr on the mound for Buffalo, the 49ers jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning.
Buffalo generated two runs in the top of the third inning when Franich hit a deep triple to left center field to score Griffin from first base. Franich then scored off an error by the 49ers' shortstop, but that's as much as Buffalo scored.
Long Beach added a run in both the third and fifth innings to defeat Buffalo, 6-2.
Buffalo's final game of the tournament against UCLA on Sunday was cancelled.
Long Beach State Invitational
The Bulls continued their West Coast trip with five games in three days while participating in the Long Beach State Invitational.
After splitting four games at the San Diego Classic, the Bulls looked for brighter days under the California sun, but left with disappointment.
The Bulls captured only one victory over the course of the weekend as their bats couldn't get going in the tournament. In five games, the Bulls only managed to score five runs and were shutout three times.
On Friday, the Bulls split a double-header after falling in a tight battle against Notre Dame (16-5), 1-0, and defeating the San Diego Aztec (15-8) in the nightcap, 5-3.
Barr was a workhorse for the Bulls as she pitched seven and two-thirds innings with appearances in both games on Friday.
Against the Fighting Irish, Barr pitched six strong innings in the loss. The only run plated by Notre Dame was an unearned score via a sacrifice fly.
The start by Barr marked her 10th of the season and tied the Bulls' school mark with 58 for her career. Barr entered the game against San Diego to earn the victory in relief of starting pitcher Terese Diaz, who also had a strong showing for the Bulls.
Diaz threw five and a third innings, and struck out seven while allowing only two earned runs.
The Bulls entered the bottom of the sixth inning trailing by two runs and needed some late game heroics to pull off the comeback.
After Buffalo loaded the bases, Ward stepped up to the plate with two outs. She drove a pitch to left centerfield for a two-base single to score two runs and tie the game at 3-all.
With the score tied and runners on second and third, Franich gave the Bulls the lead after scoring from third on a wild pitch. Ward also reached home on a single off the bat of senior left fielder Jaime Sheffler to close out the scoring for the game.
The rest of the weekend, however, was a forgettable one for Buffalo as it dropped its final three games of the Invitational.
Purdue (8-11) easily handled the Bulls in the first game on Saturday, 9-2.
Bertot – who suffered a hamstring injury and sat out during most of the games – and Franich both went 2-for-3 in the game. Diaz couldn't compliment their hitting on the mound as she gave up eight earned runs and walked seven batters in four innings of work.
The Bulls were then shutout in the second game of the day as they fell to host Long Beach State (10-12), 2-0.
Long Beach State sophomore Taylor Petty was lights out on the mound for the 49ers. She pitched a one-hitter and took the Bulls bats right out of the game. She struck out seven batters and walked only three.
Barr pitched another complete game for the Bulls, allowing only the two runs on eight hits and struck out three but it simply wasn't enough.
Waldron recorded the only hit of the day on an infield single to the shortstop as Buffalo struggled to make contact all game long.
The Bulls came back on Sunday looking for a different result but ran into another great pitcher, falling to UNLV (17-9), 2-0.
Waldron gave the Bulls a spark with her third triple of the season to start the game. With the blast, she broke her own school record for all-time triples in a career with eight and put the Bulls in prime scoring position.
Rebels pitcher Jessica O'Connor was outstanding and left the sophomore stranded on base. She went on to throw a complete game and only gave up five hits to the Bulls. She struck out four batters and walked four.
Barr also pitched a complete game for Buffalo, giving up two runs on six Rebels hits.
"Barr's ERA doesn't look great right now but she pitched against a few teams that are on the cusp of being a top 25 team in the nation," Teague said. "She gave us a lot of good innings and did well for facing the bats that she saw."
The Bulls will head back to the East Coast and begin play at the Coastal Carolina Tournament on Friday. Their first opponent will be the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (7-15) with the first pitch slated for 4 p.m.
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