FREDONIA, N.Y. -- Fredonia State and Buffalo State split a SUNYAC doubleheader Saturday at Blue Devil Field.
The Blue Devils (25-7 overall, 13-5 SUNYAC) won the opener, 1-0, on a five-hit shutout by
Alyssa Brognano. The Bengals (13-17 overall, 9-7 SUNYAC) proved opportunistic in a 6-3 win in the second game.
Brognano improved to 8-1 and lowered her team-leading earned run average to 1.31 with her first collegiate shutout in the opener. She allowed five hits, walked one, and struck out five.
The Blue Devils scored their only run in the last of the third. With two outs,
Katie Bartkowiak singled to center and then stole second. The stolen base was her 24rd, a new Fredonia State single-season record. Michelle Sherman stole 23 bases in 1999.
After a walk to
Tina Schwartzmeyer,
Michelle Lattner blooped a single to right to score Bartkowiak. Buffalo State's Kaylee Lekki pitched out of further trouble. She finished with a complete-game four-hitter in defeat.
In the second game, the Blue Devils took a 1-0 lead when Bartkowiak singled, advanced to second on a wild pitch, to third on a sacrifice bunt by Schwartzmeyer, and to home on another single by Lattner.
Buffalo State took a 2-1 lead in the third. The inning included a single by Julie Joyce, a Blue Devil throwing error, and an RBI groundout by Kristin Lekki.
The Blue Devils regained the lead with two runs in the fourth. A two-out single by
Gabrielle Ciccarello preceded a Buffalo State error, a wild pitch, and a pinch-hit RBI single by
Jamie Atkins. It was the eighth pinch hit of the season by Atkins, who has also walked four times as a pinch hitter. Bartkowiak followed with an RBI single, one of her three hits in the game, for a 3-2 Blue Devil lead.
The Bengals took the lead for good with three runs in the fifth. They added an insurance run in the sixth. Jordan Dudich, Sara Morse, and Krista Baker had singles to load the bases in the fifth. Krystin Lekki followed with a sacrifice fly before Sam Strapason and Aleesha Williams delivered RBI singles. Breanna Fenski homered leading off the sixth before Raela Wiley came on in relief of starter
Ashley LaPorta (5-2).
Wiley pitched two scoreless innings and has yet to yield an earned run in 28 1/3 innings this season.
The Blue Devils' next action is Thursday in the first round of the SUNYAC Tournament at Cortland. They enter the six-team tournament as the No. 3 seed. They will play the No. 4 seed, yet to be determined.
