STAFF REPORTS
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OLEAN — The University at Buffalo baseball team (12-25, 4-8 MAC) fell in a pitchers’ duel on Wednesday afternoon on the road to St. Bonaventure, 1-0. The Buffalo pitching staff allowed just five hits while their offense was only able to produce three singles and a double in the losing effort.
Freshman pitcher Greg Dunham had his best start of his young career on Wednesday as he went 6.0 innings while allowing just five hits and a run while striking out a pair of Bonnies in the loss. Dunham’s only blemish was a solo home run in the fourth inning. UB reliever Andrew White produced 2.0 hitless innings out of the bullpen for the Bulls in the midweek loss.
Alex Thrower led off the game with a single but the Bulls weren’t able to bring him around to score. Dunham then pitched a perfect bottom half of the first inning as he forced three straight groundouts to send the game to the second inning.
The Bonnies were finally able to break through with the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning as David Vaccaro launched a solo home run to left field to give St. Bonaventure the 1-0 lead through four innings.
The UB offense wasn’t able to get anything going in the fifth or sixth innings as the Bonnies pitchers shut the Bulls down. In the seventh inning, Chris Kwitzer notched his sixth double of the season, UB’s lone extra base hit on the day, but Kyle Brennan wasn’t able to knock in the tying run.
White entered the game in the seventh inning and cruised for the Bulls as he had a pair of 1-2-3 innings to send the game to the ninth with UB trailing 1-0. The Bonnies were able to get two quick outs before Ben Haefner sent a single into right field, bringing Vinny Mallaro to the plate with a chance to tie or give UB the lead in the game. Mallaro couldn’t produce the big hit and the Bulls fell on Wednesday afternoon, 1-0.
Kwitzer was able to extend his season-long hitting streak to 11 straight games in the loss as he went 1-for-3 with a double. Haefner finished off his afternoon going 1-for-3 with a walk as he extended his hitting streak to eight straight games while Mallaro went 1-for-4 in the loss with two runners left on base.
The Bulls will return home on Friday afternoon to Amherst Audobon Field as they welcome MAC foe Eastern Michigan for the first of a three-game series. Charlie Sobieraski will pitch for the Bulls as the two sides square off at 3:00 pm.
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