Rundown: This week in UB Athletics

Baseball (4-5, MAC 0-0)

The Bulls played in another three game road series over the weekend against the James Madison Bulldogs (7-2). On Friday the Bulls won 13-8, with junior shortstop Ben Haefner, sophomore first baseman Andrew Taft, and senior second baseman Brian Dudek all having home runs.

The Bulls continued on Saturday losing 14-6 to the Bulldogs, letting up eight runs in the sixth inning. They had their second straight loss at their last game of the series on Sunday. 

The Bulls play their next game on the road against the Canisius Golden Griffins (8-3) on Tuesday.

Men’s Basketball (17-14, MAC 11-7)

The Bulls played their final game of the regular season in Alumni Arena Friday night, beating Bowling Green (13-18, MAC 7-11) 80-68. Senior wing Blake Hamilton put up 32 points, marking his third time this season he has scored more than 30 points in a game.

With the win, the Bulls have secured a bye from the first round of the MAC tournament. Their next game will be on March 9 against the winner of the Kent State (18-13, MAC 10-8), Central Michigan game (16-15, MAC 6-12) in the Quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament.

Women’s Basketball (20-9, MAC 10-8) 

On Saturday, the Bulls lost a highly contested game to the Kent State Golden Flashes (19-11, MAC 13-5) in their final regular season game. They lost despite a huge performance for junior forward Courtney Wilkins, who had 21 points along with 9 rebounds in the game. This is the eighth conference loss for the Bulls, after coming in to conference play with one loss.

The Bulls play the Bowling Green Falcons (8-22, MAC 4-14) on Monday at 5:30 p.m. in Alumni Arena for an opening round game of the MAC tournament.

Softball (2-13, MAC 0-0)

Over the weekend, The Bulls went west to play in the Colorado State Tournament. Despite picking up their first two wins last weekend, the Bulls failed to pick up a win this weekend. 

They lost both their games against the Idaho State Bengals (5-8), losing 21-9 on Friday, then losing 9-4 to the Bengals on Saturday. The Bulls had a pair of games to Colorado State University Rams (8-4), losing Friday 3-0 and then losing their Saturday game 8-0 after 5 innings. On Sunday, the Bulls played the Penn State Lions (7-10) losing 14-1.

The Bulls will head to Memphis to participate in the Memphis Softball Tournament on Friday.

Men’s Swimming and Diving

The Bulls competed in the MAC tournament this weekend at Southern Illinois University.

The Bulls managed to take home eight gold medals over the weekend, winning 12 medals in total. At the end of the weekend the Bulls came in third as a team, with Central Michigan winning the MAC title.

The Bulls next event would be the NCAA final events if any swimmer or diver qualifies. 

Men’s Tennis (5-4, MAC 0-0)

The Bulls started their weekend on Saturday beating the Bryant Bulldogs (5-8) 6-1 in matches. This marked the fourth straight wins for the Bulls, after starting the season 1-3. On Sunday, the Bulls steak came to an end, falling to the Princeton Tiger (6-6) 6-1 in matches.

The Bulls next game is away on March 17 against the Binghamton Bobcats (4-7).

Women’s Tennis (5-3, MAC 0-0)

The Bulls had a double header this weekend, defeating the Duquesne Dukes (7-4) 4-3 in matches on Friday. They hit the road and came up short to Towson (4-2) losing 4-3 on Saturday.

They play their next game against the St. Francis University Red Flashes (3-7) on Friday.

Wrestling

The wrestling team had a big weekend at MAC Championships. Sophomore heavyweight Jake Gunning won the conference individual title at 285 pounds, giving Buffalo it’s first individual title since 2011. 

Gunning, along with fellow sophomores Bryan Lantry (133 pounds) and Kyle Akins (125 pounds), will compete at NCAA Championships on March 16 in Saint Louis. The Bulls as a team finished sixth overall with 80.5 points. 

Sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com

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