James Kingsley

BUFFALO, NY - Friday's Mid-American Conference game between the University at Buffalo baseball team and Ohio University was filled with surprises, plot twists and changes in momentum. It was everything that a college baseball game is supposed to be.

Saturday morning's steady rain brought the worst plot twist, however, as neither the Bulls (11-20-1 overall, 1-6-1 MAC) nor the Bobcats (17-14-1 overall, 6-4-1 MAC) will get to take a happy ending from the game. Unplayable conditions at Amherst Audubon Field wiped out the planned conclusion of the 12 1/2-inning test of attrition as well as the doubleheader planned after the conclusion of the 8-8 tie.

Due to the distances between the school and the unfavorable weather forecast for Sunday, no makeup date will be set for the final two games of the series.

Friday afternoon's game, which was called due to an increasingly steady rain as the Bobcats took the field for the bottom of the 13th inning, is now officially a 12-inning, 8-8 tie. It is the first tie for the Bulls since a 7-7 tie with Michigan State in the Hurricane Classic in 1974.

Down 6-2 with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, Buffalo's next seven batters reached base. A three-run homer from junior James Kingsley (Medina, NY/Medina) tied the game at six and after two more singles, sophomore Mike Connelly (Utica, NY/Proctor) blooped a single in down the right field line on a 3-2 pitch to give the Bulls the 7-6 lead.

Ohio's Ben Crabtree, the back-to-back MAC East Division Player of the Week, went 4-for-6 with two runs scored and two RBIs, and he sparked a two-run Ohio ninth with an RBI single to center field to tie the game before Brian Colopy, who went 3-for-5 with two runs and two RBIs, followed with an RBI single on a soft looper that the Bulls' second baseman dove, fully extended, got a glove on but the ball trickled loose to give Ohio the lead, 8-7.

The lead didn't last as senior shortstop Joe Mihalics (Tonawanda, NY/Timon-St. Jude) tripled to deep left center with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to score a run and send the game to extra innings, where Ohio's Dan O'Rourke and Buffalo's junior Sean McWilliams (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) combined to toss up seven zeroes on the scoreboard.

Buffalo will try to get back in the action on Tuesday at the Big 4 Tournament at Dunn Tire Park with a 3:00 pm game with St. Bonaventure in the first round of the tournament.