Kent State Leads From The Start In 7-1 Win Over Buffalo
5/3/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
KENT, Ohio - The Golden Flashes bucked the trend in the last week and played from ahead.
Kent State scored in the bottom of the first and never looked back in a 7-1 win over Buffalo. The Golden Flashes improved to 28-17 overall and 11-6 in conference play while the Bulls fell to 13-31, 6-13 in MAC play.
Junior Chris Carpenter picked up the win for the Golden Flashes, allowing one run on four hits and two walks in six innings. Freshman Justin Gill picked up his first save of the year by throwing the final three innings.
Offensively, sophomore Conor Egan led Kent State with two hits in two at-bats. In the bottom of the third, he gave KSU a 3-0 lead by driving a 3-1 pitch over the right field fence for his third homerun of the year. Junior Chris Tremblay went 2-for-5 with a run and RBI.
In the home half of the first, the Golden Flashes would put runner on the corners with singles by Tremblay and senior Doug Sanders. Sophomore Anthony Gallas grounded into a double play, but Tremblay scored on the play to make the score 1-0 Kent State.
In the bottom of the third, Kent State struck for two more runs. Leading off the inning, Gallas reached second base on a dropped fly ball. After a flyout, Egan hit an opposite field two-run home run to right center and put Kent State up three.
The Bulls and Golden Flashes traded runs in the fourth and KSU would blow the game open in the bottom of the sixth. Sophomore Cory Hindel reached base on an error by the second baseman and advanced to second on a one-out hit by Sanders. Then the rain started to fall on Schoonover Stadium and the game was delayed.
After a 1:14 break, Kent State put the game away. With runners at first and second with one out, Gallas and junior Greg Rohan smashed RBI singles to make the score 6-1. The Golden Flashes added a run in the bottom of the eighth for the final 7-1 tally.
Relieving Carpenter after the rain delay, Gill earned his first save of his collegiate career by giving up no runs on one hit and two walks over the final three innings.
Kent State looks to sweep their third MAC series tomorrow afternoon when it hosts Buffalo in the final game of the series. First pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
