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One Miami University sports team will play the role of matador this weekend when the RedHawk baseball team (17-15) will attempt to corral the University at Buffalo Bulls (14-18). The first game of the series will kick off at 6 p.m. Friday under the luminous bulbs of Hayden Park.
"We definitely want to take advantage of the home MAC games that we get because there are only so many of those weekends at home," sophomore Jon Edgington said. "Obviously the primary goal is winning the MAC, so we have the advantage to have that opportunity of playing at home. We lost to Buffalo a couple times last year so we kind of owe them."
The 'Hawks are off to a strong season headlined by a cast of strong hitters and articulate pitchers. The story this year has been having successful at bats and executing on the hill.
This year's Miami pitching staff is lead by Tyler Melling and Matt Erwood. Melling had a terrific outing last weekend against Central Michigan. The sophomore gave up three hits and fanned six in seven plus innings of work. On the season Melling is second in the Mid-American Conference in victories and holds an unblemished 4-0 record. He has also bewildered opposing hitters into a lowly .234 average. Erwood uses his towering 6-foot-7-inch frame to overpower batters. His tremendous repertoire of pitches has helped him rack up 39 punch-outs this season, good for fifth place in the MAC.
"Both of those guys have been very, very consistent," head coach Dan Simonds said. "Certainly when they take the mound it gives us a chance to win. Both of them have done a good job in the sense that they change speeds very well and have been effective in the zone. It's very comfortable for our defense, playing behind them. They're going to challenge and go after hitters. They aren't going to get behind a whole lot. It's not always going to be 2-0 or 3-1. The pace, the tempo that they keep and how they compete has been a real benefit for us."
Random outbursts of run support have certainly helped the 'Hawks compete in an ultra competitive MAC East this year. Although this is a sign of inconsistency and instability on the part of a developing team, players like Edgington have been looking to hit their team into the thick of a MAC Championship. Last weekend, Edgington saw his 11 game hitting streak snapped. The streak stood as a microcosm of the production of the bottom half of the lineup.
"Being able to have one through nine," Edgington said. "When you have that, the pitcher faces Tommy Nurre, Hatfield, Petraitis, it's all of those guys. Then turns around and sees the bottom order is still hot too. I think it just really wears down the opponent. It's when they get the ball back from facing one of our power hitters and you have 7-8-9 still doing damage. It's hard to go more than four or five innings when you got stuff like that happening. I think that's really helped big time. Curl has gotten pretty hot too as of late and I think that has helped a lot."
Freshman Ryan Curl looked like anything but his surname last weekend.
The phenomenon hit .364, his first career homerun, a triple and drove in the winning run in an extra inning contest. The tandem of Edgington and Curl are what any team would love to have at the bottom of the lineup and have definitely proved their worth as of late.
The Bulls are lead offensively by Chris Ciesla, .367 and the pitching duo of Zach Anderson and Pierre Miville-Deschenes. Anderson leads the team and is second in the conference in strikeouts with 43, averaging nearly 12 per game. P.M.D. has 42 punch-outs to his credit and hold opponents to a .250 average.
Saturday's game will also begin at 6 p.m. with Sunday's matinee kicking off at 1 p.m.
