Coach Joe Carbone routinely describes baseball as a game of ups and downs, and no Mid-American Conference team has been more polarizing in that respect this season than Buffalo.
Despite only one win in MAC play, Buffalo leads the league with 34 home runs — six more than Ohio, which is second in that category. The Bulls are also second in slugging percentage and third in batting average.
“We respect their ability to hit the ball,” Carbone said. “Buffalo is a tough place to play and always has been for us. We know that we’re not in great shape right now, and we’ve got to go out and play well in order to beat them.”
But as good as their hitting has been, the Bulls’ pitching has been that much worse.
Coming into the series, Buffalo’s team ERA is an astronomical 7.34 — 1.51 points higher than the next worst team.
In fact, only twice all season has Buffalo held a MAC opponent to under five runs, and nine times has an opponent scored more than 10 runs against the Bulls.
In a series against New Mexico State to start the season, Buffalo allowed 77 runs throughout the four games.
Despite the Bulls’ defensive struggles, Carbone said his team still must show discipline at the plate, something with which the Bobcats have struggled all season.
“We still have to be patient and make sure they’re throwing strikes,” he said. “What they’ve done in the past doesn’t necessitate what they’ll do this weekend. We’ll have our hands full because there is no area of the game where we have played great this year.”
With the MAC Tournament only three weeks away, these games become even more important in the race to secure one of the spots in the eight-team field.
At 5-13, Ohio sits in 10th place, 3.5 games back of Ball State for eighth.
With the tournament nearing, Carbone said this weekend’s series is one the Bobcats must win if they wish to stay alive in the race.
“We’ve got to win more than we lose the rest of the way. Hopefully we’ll win a lot more than we lose,” he said. “We know where we’re at right now.”
Carbone said the biggest area of need for his team is consistency.
“We’re getting more mature and learning the game better. We need to improve as much as we can until the end of the season,” he said. “We have gotten better with consistency, but we’re still not where we need to be to be an outstanding team.”
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