Miami Ends April with Trip to Buffalo
4/27/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 26, 2012
Miami returns to Mid-American Conference East Division play this weekend when it travels to Buffalo for a key conference series against the Bulls. Both teams are currently on the outside in the race for a top-eight finish and spot in the MAC Tournament.
The RedHawks (21-21, 6-9) have won four of their last six games, splitting a home-and-home series with Indiana during the week, The RedHawks won 8-7 in Bloomington, while the Hoosiers escaped Oxford with a 6-4 victory.
Buffalo (10-26, 3-11) has lost six straight games dating back to April 14. In their last three contests, the Bulls dropped close decisions to Ohio, 6-4, 5-3 and 4-1. UB has been swept in three of its MAC series (0-2 vs. Western Michigan) and dropped two of three in another. Its only series win came by a 2-1 margin against Akron April 13-14.
Freshman Matt Honchel ended a 1-for-16 slump on Tuesday with three hits then added a pair on Wednesday to increase his team-high batting average to .387. He also leads the team with 19 multiple-high games this season and has posted three hitting streaks of eight games or more.
Junior Kevin Bower is second on the team in hitting with a .340 average and has driving in a club-best 37 runs, while Nate Bowles stands third at .338. John Crummy is just two points behind at .336. Bryce Redeker has a team-best four homers and 33 RBIs.
As a team, Miami is hitting .300 with six players holding an average above that.
Miami continues with the same weekend rotation it has used the last three weekends. Junior Brooks Fiala (2-5, 6.43) draws Friday's start for the third consecutive week, while senior Shawn Marquardt (5-3, 3.95) looks to continue his solid season on Saturday.
Junior Mac Thoreson, who threw the first seven Fridays of the season, is slated to pitch on Sunday again this week. He is 4-3 with a 6.15 ERA.
