Kent State Battles to Beat Buffalo, Win Series

Sunday, April 20

Kent, Ohio

1:00 PM

Kent State University

25-13, 11-4

University at Buffalo

17-14, 8-6

Buffalo

Kent State

Photo by: David Dermer

Kent State Battles to Beat Buffalo, Win Series

4/20/2014 5:07:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

KENT, Ohio – Every time Buffalo plated a run, Kent State seemed to find a bigger answer as the Flashes pulled out a series win with a 7-4 victory on Sunday afternoon.

"Those first six innings today, their guy threw a gem," Head Coach Jeff Duncan said. "He was outstanding. We made a really good adjustment in the 6^th inning and started getting to him and we won that game in the 6^th inning on, basically. We played really good baseball from then on. It was a good win for us."

The victory improves Kent State to 25-13 on the season and 11-4 in the Mid-American Conference. The team leads the East Division by two games over Akron. With a Central Michigan loss in its weekend finale, Kent State is just a game back of the Chippewas overall and a half game behind Ball State for the overall lead in the conference. Buffalo now drops to 17-14 and 8-6.

Like in every game this weekend, the Bulls got on the scoreboard first with a run in the 3^rd, but Sawyer Polen found some boom in his bat as he homered to tie the game in the bottom of the inning.

Buffalo would grab a short lead in the 6^th when they were able to tally a run thanks to an error, but Kent State had a big answer for them. The home-side of the frame was ignited again by Polen who led off with a double and then scored on a double by Alex Miklos to tie the game at two. After the Buffalo defense was swapped around due to an injury to the team's center fielder, Justin Wagler blasted a shot to dead center for an inside the park homerun that scored three.

The Bulls brought the lead to within a run with two in the 7^th, but the Golden Flashes scored one in the 8^th and 9^th to seal the series victory. The final two runs came on a sacrifice fly by Jon Wilson and a RBI single by Zarley Zalewski.

Brian Clark was very sharp in the start to earn the win. He began the game with two strikeouts in the first, retiring all three batters on just seven pitches. Clark went six innings with four hits, two earned runs, three walks and seven strikeouts.

"Brian Clark had a really good start again," said Duncan. "That's good to see. It's the fifth or sixth start in a row now where he's been really good. And then our bullpen hung in there, too."

Eric Dorsch got his second save in as many days and eighth on the season with a 1-2-3 9^th frame.

"Dorsch did his thing," Duncan said of his closer. "He's a very dominant pitcher and he's got unbelievable potential on that mound. It's good to have him in the back end of that bullpen."

Polen followed his homerun and double with a ground-rule double in the 7^th to end the day a perfect 3-for-3 with a RBI and two runs scored. Cody Koch went 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk.

"Sawyer Polen was so big for us," said Duncan. "To see him go ahead and get us kick-started with that homerun and two doubles really got us going. It was outstanding to see. He works extremely hard."

The Golden Flashes finish their current homestand with a pair of midweek games. They host Penn State on Tuesday and Malone on Wednesday, both 6:00pm start times.