FRESNO, Calif. ? A hitter's game from the get-go, Buffalo won the offensive battle over CSUB, pounding out 18 hits to Bakersfield's 13 in a 23-10 final Thursday at the 31st Annual Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic hosted by Fresno State.
After both teams went scoreless through the first, Buffalo (7-6 overall) exploded for six runs on five hits in the top of the second. With one out in the second, CSUB's Martin Medina reached on an infield single, Eric Sanchez singled to left and, after a Garrett Branske fly out, Joey Mills blasted a two-RBI triple to left, giving the ?Runners their first runs of the game.
Buffalo added a pair of runs in the top of the third on a two-RBI triple to left and Bakersfield got another one back in the bottom of the inning when Ryan McIntyre led off with a double, advanced to third on a fly out and scored on a failed pick off attempt from the catcher.
With two outs in the fourth, the ?Runners continued to chip away when Brandon Boren reached on an error, stole second and scored on a Kyle Richardson double to center to make it 8-4.
In the fifth, Stuart Smith and Medina blasted back-to-back solo home runs to pull within two, 8-6. Then, after a Buffalo pitching change, freshman catcher Garrett Branske smacked his first collegiate home run to make it a one-run ball game.
With Bakersfield (4-8 overall) trailing just 8-7, the Bulls posted a pair of big innings of their own, scoring four in the sixth and three in the seventh to push their lead to 15-7.
The ?Runners made one final push in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run single by Branske and an RBI single by Richardson, but Buffalo added two more in the eight and sixth in the ninth to secure the win.
Bakersfield starting pitcher Medina (0-2) went five innings, striking out seven, while giving up nine hits, six walks and nine runs. Reliever Chris Ciesla earned the win for Buffalo after starter Mike Stangroom lased just 4.1 innings.
Medina finished 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the ?Runners. Richardson, Smith, Branske and Mills all added a pair of hits, while Branske had a team-best three RBI.
The second round of tournament action continues Friday when Bakersfield takes on host Fresno State at 6:05 p.m. The match-up with the 2008 National Champion Bulldogs is the second of seven total meetings between the two teams this season.
Score by Innings R H E
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Buffalo............. 062 004 326 - 23 18 2
CSU Bakersfield..... 021 130 300 - 10 13 1
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Win - CIESLA (1-1). Loss - Medina (0-2). Save - None.
E - ROSENBECK; GREENO; Branske. LOB - UB 8; CSUB 11. 2B - PIZZUTO; FLYNN 2; Richardson; McIntyre; Medina. 3B - GREENO; Mills. HR - PIZZUTO; Smith; Medina; Branske. HBP - KARSTEDT; ROSENBECK; McIntyre. SB - PIZZUTO; MCCALL; Boren; McIntyre 2; Mills. CS - PIZZUTO 2; KARSTEDT; Richardson. Reached on CI - PIZZUTO.
