Buffalo first MAC home series for the baseball team
The baseball team hosts its first Mid-American Conference opponent at 3:05 p.m. today when it meets Buffalo at Theunissen Stadium for the first of a three-game series.
"Playing at home always adds excitement to the game for us," said coach Steve Jaksa. "It is an important series for us. We need to play well. We will be ready to go."
The Bulls swept Central in a two-game series last season. Both games were one-run victories for Buffalo.
The second game of the series starts at 2:05 p.m. Saturday and the third game is set for 1:05 p.m. Sunday. Central leads the all-time series with Buffalo 13-3.
"We definitely have last season's series against them in the back of our minds," said junior pitcher Jesse Hernandez. "They took two games from us. Historically, we have always dominated Buffalo. So we want to get them back and get on top of the MAC at the same time."
The Chippewas' defense has struggled - it has already committed the MAC's second-most errors (46). Buffalo (8-13) has less errors with 34.
Three Central starters are batting more than .300, including sophomore outfielder Matt Faiman, who has a .407 average in 81 at bats. Faiman's 33 hits are second-most in the conference.
The Chippewas have scored 153 runs this season - second in the MAC to Kent State's 157.
"We have been putting up some good numbers," Hernandez said. "We have been swinging the bat really well. In the game, if our defense gets down, our offense is able to pick the game back up."
CMU opened its MAC home schedule last season by going 1-2 against Ohio. The team then lost its next two MAC games to start 1-4.
"Last year we had to come from behind and just barely made the tournament," Hernandez said. "We definitely want to turn that around and get on top early."
The team's pitching has seen some success, as senior Steve Teno and Hernandez have the most strikeouts of all MAC pitchers with 32 and 30 respectively.
CMU heads into the match-up 9-12 overall, 1-2 in the MAC. The Chippewas are 2-0 at home, but are in the midst of a two-game losing streak and have given up double-digit runs in the last three games.
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