The baseball team has lost six straight but the biggest loss for the Bulls in that time is senior pitcher Kevin Hughes.
The No. 2 man in the Bulls' (7-16, 1-4 Mid-American Conference) rotation has thrown his last pitch this season. He will require Tommy John surgery and will not return for the remainder of the spring. Head coach Ron Torgalski is leaning toward freshman lefthander Mike McGee to be the third man in the rotation, with senior Jeff Thompson jumping into the second spot.
The Bulls will have to find a way to score runs against one of the best pitching rotations in the conference if they wants to climb out of the MAC East cellar when they play at first place Kent State (15-13, 6-0 MAC) in a weekend series.
Ryan Bores, Tyler Skulina, and David Starn have a combined ERA of 3.01 and have each started seven games for the Golden Flashes. Bores, who transferred from Virginia, throws mid-90s and could overpower the Bulls.
"Their pitchers come right at you," said junior catcher Tom Murphy. "They're not afraid to dance around the strike zone, they know they have good stuff and they use it against you."
The Bulls do have some added power returning to their lineup this weekend. Junior first baseman Alex Baldock has been cleared to play after breaking his wrist during the second week of the season. He will most likely return as the designated hitter, and he will play in the field the following weekend if he feels comfortable.
Baldock is hitting .294 with a homerun and six RBIs in 17 at bats. Torgalski sees him as a solid middle of the order MAC hitter.
The Bulls have averaged eight runs per game and have the best overall batting average among MAC teams, but have dropped to just five runs per game in MAC play. They do have 33 homeruns this season, which also leads the MAC.
"We need to go up there with the same approach we had when we started the season," Torgalski said. "We got to go up with a plan and be aggressive and hit our pitch. If we do that we'll be successful. I don't think there are many pitchers in the conference that will be able to shut us down."
The Bulls have the highest ERA among MAC pitching staffs, but Kent State is not known for its offensive prowess. It has hit just 13 homeruns this year so Bulls pitchers should be able to challenge the hitters and try to get ahead in the count.
"Our pitchers should challenge anybody," Togalski said. "You go through any teams in the MAC - there aren't many that have hit a whole lot of homeruns. Kent's got some big, strong guys in the lineup and you have to challenge them but you also have to be careful. They've got guys that at any time, you make a pitch and leave it up, they're going to jump on it, and drive it somewhere."
Earlier in the season, the Bulls were losing games because of errors. The lack of practicing time on a real field leading up to the season was to blame, and now they are fielding the ball cleanly. They have committed just four errors over the last four games after compiling eight in a three-game series against Central Michigan (12-17, 3-3 MAC) two weekends ago. Buffalo should have another good defensive weekend as Kent State has a turf field and there shouldn't be any bad hops.
The improvement on defense has helped the pitching; the Bulls' pitchers are not worried about balls being put into play.
"Yeah, it makes a huge difference," said senior pitcher Cameron Copping. "When guys are out there making plays on defense, you just got that confidence that you can miss your spot and let them hit the ball and your defense will back you up."
Copping is coming off 10 shutout innings in last start. He is emerging as the ace of the staff after a slow start.
"The same thing happened to him last year," Torgalski said. "If you go back and look at his stats, he started out slow and once we got into conference he picked it up and had a very good conference season. We're just hoping he can continue to do what he did last week and puts up even better numbers than he did last year."
The first pitch of the three-game series will be Friday at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday will begin at 1 p.m. with all games being played at Schoonover Baseball Stadium in Kent, Ohio.
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