By Skye Tulio
Assistant Sports Editor
After its first home loss against Canisius, 4-3, Tuesday, the baseball team prepares to take on Fordham in a three-game home series this weekend, beginning today at 4 p.m.
The Bonnies (9-9, 1-2) take on the Rams (9-16, 1-2) in their second series of Atlantic 10 play. Last weekend against Dayton, the team took one out of three from the Flyers to start the conference slate.
“Fordham is a team that doesn’t swing the bat particularly well,” coach Larry Sudbrook said. “They rely on good pitching and have three pretty good arms that will keep them in the game, so if we score some runs we should be in pretty good shape.”
Sudbrook said he would call the series against Dayton a mediocre outing, but he felt his team could have done more.
“We left (Dayton) doing what we had to do, but we felt we’d definitely left something on the table,” Sudbrook said. “They’re a good team, but they’re not a team if we got to play them in the (A-10) tournament that we’d go, ‘Wow, these guys are really good.’”
Last season, the visiting Bonnies took two (6-5, 6-2) from Fordham before losing their final game, 9-1. Sudbrook said the team knows it needs to win at least two out of its three games this weekend in order to have a good series.
“When you’re at home, I don’t believe if you’re playing one of the good teams or the fair teams or a bottom-feeder that you should be happy with anything other than two out of three,” Sudbrook said.
Sudbrook said a good outing against the Rams would help boost the Bonnies’ confidence after a tough road trip to Ohio.
“I do feel, and I think the team would feel, a little more confident after playing Dayton to see that we’re probably as good as some of the better teams in the league, so now let’s prove it,” Sudbrook said.
In its first matchup of the season against Little Three rival Canisius (12-13), the team’s offense started off slow, allowing the Golden Griffins to gain an early 4-0 lead.
Starting for the Bonnies, sophomore righty Asa Johnson (1-1) gave up three runs in the first inning for a 3-0 Golden Griffin lead. Johnson held Canisius scoreless for the next three innings before giving up a solo home run in the fourth. In his first loss of the season, Johnson went five innings, allowing four earned runs on six hits.
Sudbrook said although Johnson didn’t pitch as well as he has previously in the season, he has improved from freshman year.
“On Tuesday, he reverted back a little bit to the freshman year where his fastball was up, giving up a couple legitimate hits in the first inning and then the bomb to right-center field that ended up being the game-winner,” Sudbrook said. “He didn’t pitch horrible, but he was just fair.”
Freshman righty Cameron Carney pitched an inning of relief for Johnson in the sixth, giving up no runs on zero hits.
The Bonnies’ offense livened in the bottom of the seventh after going scoreless for the first six-and-a-half innings. Junior third basemen Billy Urban led off the inning with a double, advancing to third on a groundout by junior first baseman Austin Ingraham. Urban later scored on a single by senior right fielder Ryan Skellie.
Sudbrook said Urban has had a great career at Bona’s so far, hitting over .300 last year and standing .435 this year. He said it doesn’t matter if opponents are lefty or a righty — if they throw the ball over the plate, Urban can “whack it.”
“Billy can just flat-out rake,” Sudbrook said. “He does a lot of things as a hitter that are wrong that you wouldn’t teach somebody to do, but he has a tremendous gift of hand-eye coordination and he can square the ball up. Because he can do that, he does some things at the plate that wouldn’t be taught but he’s successful doing it, so you don’t change it.”
Senior catcher Michael Grieco advanced Skellie to second after a walk. Both Grieco and Skellie crossed the plate after a double to left field by junior shortstop Michael Meredith cut the Griffins’ lead down to one.
Freshman righty Zach Edwards pitched an inning of relief for the Bonnies, giving up one hit. Junior Jason Radwan relieved Edwards, pitching one-and-one-third innings and giving up a hit. Urban closed out the game in the top of the ninth with one out and the bases loaded, striking out the next two batters to hold the Griffins.
Sudbrook said Urban’s pitching gave the team a chance to come back in the ninth.
“Urban’s got a very good curveball, which can get people out,” Sudbrook said. “He’s pretty much a one-inning guy because he’s a max-effort person. He doesn’t have the body build to throw 100 pitches, but he can give us some relief help for an inning.”
Seven different Bonnies recorded at least a hit during the game. Radwan, Skellie, Urban, senior Nick Brennen, sophomore Justin Brozick, Meredith and Grieco reached base on hits. Meredith added two RBI and Skellie added one.
Sudbrook said one of his team’s strengths this year is swinging the bats, but the first time through the Bonnies’ lineup, Canisius starter Rohn Pierce quick-pitched the Bonnies, costing them the game.
“(Pierce) was standing on the mound, and as soon as we’d get in the box he would go immediately to pitch and he’d go strike one … we were taking the pitch constantly,” Sudbrook said. “Therefore, we were always in the hole and because he was a three-quarter, sidearmed-type kid with a slider that gave the right-handed pitchers problems because they were already down strike one.”
Sudbrook said he was disappointed in his predominantly junior and senior lineup for taking three or four innings to figure Pierce out, and by then it was too late.
“They didn’t make an adjustment and get time from the umpire and get themselves set for that first pitch,” Sudbrook said. “We should have hit that first pitch a few more times.”
tuliosa10@bonaventure.edu
