By Skye Tulio
Sports Editor
In the hopes of securing its first conference series sweep of the season, the baseball team (9-15, 2-4) travels to Amherst, Mass., to take on the Massachusetts Minutemen this weekend. The two teams will begin their series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. and conclude Sunday at 12 p.m.
Coach Larry Sudbrook said it’s especially important to keep the Minutemen (5-17, 1-5) off the base paths in this Atlantic 10 outing.
“It’s really going to depend on what we get out of the mound,” Sudbrook said. “UMass is a team that runs a lot and bunts a lot. They try to make you make mistakes and the easiest way for them to do that is if you walk them. If you give them free bases, because they don’t hit all that great, they’re going to make it pretty miserable for you.”
Redshirt junior Andrew Revello, junior Asa Johnson and freshman Steven Klimek will all be on the mound at some point this weekend for the Bonnies. Sudbrook said the team will fare better if all three right handers deliver.
“If Andrew Revello, Asa and Steven go out and pound the strike zone I think we’ll have a better than average chance to have a good weekend,” Sudbrook said. “If they don’t, we’re going to struggle.”
In order to get on track for A-10 contention, Sudbrook said the Bonnies have to come out on top in series against teams like UMass.
“If we’re going to keep ourselves in the hunt, that’s one of the weekends you want to win at least two out of three,” Sudbrook said.
On their trip to Philadelphia last weekend to take on St. Joseph’s, the Bonnies dropped their first and last contest (8-4, 7-3) of the three-game series, winning the second game in a comeback victory, 6-5. The series did not count as A-10 games.
“If you’re going to lose two out of three, let’s do it when it’s not in the A-10,” Sudbrook said. “We have struggled and we had just come off winning two out of three at home from Butler, so when you go to the next place you want to keep that momentum going.”
Sudbrook said the team has yet to get into a consistent rhythm so far this season.
“We’ve had several two-game win streaks, but we haven’t got to the point where we’ve had a three or a four or a five game streak where you start feeling pretty good about yourself,” Sudbrook said.
“Then when you do have a bad day, it’s easier to shrug off.”
The second-day victory served as Sudbrook’s 600th career win, making him St. Bonaventure’s winningest coach in any sport. He is a two-time Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year, producing 30 A-10 All Conference selections and 10 Major League Baseball Draft picks in his 28 years of coaching at Bona’s.
“I’m certainly proud of it,” Sudbrook said. “I love St. Bonaventure and enjoy this school; the kids were excited about it. They were fired up that they were here when it happened and they can always look back at alumni events and say they were here when Coach won his 600th game, so that was nice, but I just wish it would have come under a little better circumstances as far as where we’re at right now.”
To celebrate their coach’s triumph, the Bonnies will present Sudbrook with a baseball signed by every member of the team. A formal ceremony will take place before a home game later this season to officially congratulate Sudbrook on this milestone.
The Bonnies also played a double header Tuesday at Niagara (10-21, 5-4) to make up for the postponed March 19 games. After playing seven innings, the teams were forced to shorten the second game to just five innings due to rain.
“We were very disappointed when we got back here and found out you guys had a 74-degree day,” Sudbrook said. “We played in 47-degree weather with wind, clouds and rain and we get back here and it’s beautiful.”
The team dropped the first game, 6-3, but came back with a 4-0 victory to split the series with the Purple Eagles.
“In the first game we walked seven people in seven innings you’re going to lose when that happens and you should lose,” Sudbrook said. “In the second game, we walked one person in five innings and Joel Rosencrance shut them out and you win the game going away.”
