Bulls Rally Falls Short at Le Moyne

Ciesla, Mancini and Walczak each homer for UB in the loss

Rob Mancini

SYRACUSE, NY – Trailing 9-2 after four innings, the University at Buffalo baseball team rallied Wednesday afternoon at Le Moyne, but was unable to complete the comeback, falling, 10-9. The Bulls are now 5-15 overall on the season.

Buffalo took a lead in the first inning when Brian Randazzo (St. Charles, MO/St. Charles) walked to open the frame and scored when Rob Mancini (Windsor, Ontario/St. Thomas) doubled to the center field fence. The UB lead increased to 2-0 when Chris Ciesla (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) drove in Mancini.

Le Moyne tied the game in the bottom of the first on a two-run home run by Corey O’Neill and took a 3-2 lead on a solo home run by Chris Edmundson. The Dolphins scored four more in the second, the big hit of the inning coming when Edmundson hit a three-run shot to right field for his second home run of the day.

The Dolphins scored single runs in the third and fourth innings to extend their lead to 9-2.

Trevor Blair (Oneida, NY/Oneida) reached base on an error to lead off the fifth inning and scored on a RBI single by Randazzo and the Bulls got their second run of the inning when Mancini drove in E.J. Folli (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) with a single.

After Le Moyne scored a run in the bottom of the fifth, Nick Walczak (Tonawanda, NY/Kenmore East) led off the sixth for the Bulls with a home run to right center field, cutting the Le Moyne lead to 10-5. Adam Skonieczki (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) then singled and was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Folli.

Chris Ciesla

Mancini cut the Le Moyne lead to 10-7 when he led off the seventh with a solo shot over the left field wall. After Jacob Rosenbeck (Medina, NY/Medina) reached on an error, Ciesla extended his hit streak to six games and cut the Dolphin lead to just one run with a two-run blast deep over the left field fence.

Buffalo threatened in the eighth as Randazzo singled, stole second and advanced to third on a ground out, but the Bulls were unable to bring him home.

Buffalo will return to action this weekend when they host Central Michigan in a three-game Mid-American Conference series. The Bulls and the Chippewas are scheduled to play Friday, March 28 at Amherst Audubon Field at 3:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, March 29 and 30 at 1:00 p.m.

03/25/2008