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BUFFALO, NY ­ Four University at Buffalo baseball players and head coach Bill Breene will take part in an international baseball tournament in Moscow, Russia later this month as part of a State University of New York (SUNY) college all-star team.

Adrian Daniels

The four Bulls selected to play are seniors-to-be Adrian Daniels (Spencerport, NY/Spencerport), Brandon DiCesare (Rochester, NY/McQuaid Jesuit) and Tyler Balentine (Mendon, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) and sophomore-to-be Joe Mihalics (Tonawanda, NY/Timon-St. Jude). Breene will act as an assistant coach on the team with Cortland State's Joe Brown serving as head coach.

The team will meet up at SUNY Farmingdale for practices on June 21st and 22nd and will fly to Moscow on June 23rd. The tournament, which features teams from Japan, Korea, Russia and other European nations, will run from June 24-July 1.

Brandon DiCesare

Daniels, DiCesare and Balentine were all part of Breene's first recruiting class at UB when the University reinstated baseball for the 1999-2000 season. The coach sees many benefits in the trip.

"This will be a great opportunity for our guys to play together, but probably as important will be the cultural aspects of the trip," said Breene. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for these players to see a historic city like Moscow and to play against some of the best players from around the world. We expect the competition to be excellent, especially from Japan and Korea where these touring teams play together in international events all year."

Daniels, an infielder, hit .331 on the season with eight doubles and was second on the team with a .516 slugging percentage. DiCesare, a catcher, also hit .331, led the Bulls in doubles with 14 and also drove in 33 runs, second best on the squad. Balentine, a right-handed pitcher, saw action in 13 games, starting eight of them, and finished with a 6.91 earned run average. He struck out 49 batters, second best on the Bulls, while walking only 27. Mihalics, meanwhile, hit .278 and drove in 15 runs in his freshman season while seeing time in the UB outfield. He is a former first-team All-Western New York selection.