STAFF REPORTS
The Bisons were held to just five singles as they ended their seven-game roadtrip with a 5-0 defeat to the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on Memorial Day from Coca-Cola Park. Despite the loss, the Herd earned a four-game split with the Pigs and finished their road swing with a winning 4-3 record.
Tom Eschelman did not give Buffalo much to work with over seven brilliant innings on the mound for Lehigh Valley. The righty allowed just four hits and a walk while striking out seven batters. The Herd put runners in scoring position just three times, including the fifth inning when they had runners on second and third with only one out. In the only frame Buffalo had multiple baserunners, Eschelman got out of the jam by striking out Andrew Guillotte and getting Anthony Alford to ground out sharply to shortstop.
Eschelman retired the final nine batters he faced to earn his first victory of the season. Reliever Austin Davis completed the shutout by setting down six of the seven batters he saw, three via the strikeout.
It was a bizarre sequence of events that led to the first IronPigs run. Andrew Romine led off the second inning with a grounder to first base that Jordan Patterson fielded cleanly before tossing the ball to a covering Conor Fisk. However, the ball glanced off Fisk’s glove and rolled towards the first base dugout, where it kicked off the protective netting. Believing the play was dead, Bisons catcher Patrick Cantwell used his catcher’s mask to scoop the ball between his legs towards his awaiting mitt.
The first base umpire noticed it immediately and signaled the two-base error on Cantwell that allowed Romine to advance all the way to third base. After Fisk rebounded to strike out Mitch Walding, Ali Castillo laced a sharp single into left field to score Romine for the 1-0 lead.
An inning later, Romine made it 2-0 with a double to left field that scored Nick Williams and moved Deivy Grullon over to third base so that he could score on a ground out from Walding. The IronPigs took a 4-0 lead in the fourth on Rob Brantly‘s second home run of the season.
Fisk suffered his second defeat of the season despite five strikeouts over three innings. William Oullette and Jonathan Cheshire each threw a pair of innings of relief after being promoted to the Herd from Double-A New Hampshire. For the 24-year old Cheshire who allowed a run on two hits, the outing was his Triple-A debut and only his seventh appearance above the Single-A level.
The Bisons now will return home for a short three-game homestand against the Syracuse Mets starting Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m..
