Bison baseball went 3-1 in its series against Lafayette from April 19-20 to clinch a top-two seed in next month’s Patriot League postseason tournament. Thanks to strong pitching, the Bison moved to 12-4 in league play for the season. The Bison remain in first place among league competitors.

“Anytime you win a series on the road, it is a good weekend.  We swung the bats well, and our pitchers kept us in the game the entire time,” Carter Austin ’17 said.

Saturday’s doubleheader at Kamine Stadium proved to be a day of impressive pitching for starting pitchers Bryson Hough ’15 and Dan Weigel ’14. The Bison defense allowed only one earned run through 16 innings of play, leading to 4-0 and 4-1 victories. The Bison offense took advantage of three Lafayette errors in game one by scoring four unearned runs in the first two innings. Hough kept this momentum going, allowing only three hits through the entire game. His season record improved to 5-3, as he recorded his third career shutout and sixth career complete game.

The Leopards took an early one-run lead in game two, but the Bison took charge by scoring two in the third inning and two more in the seventh inning. Weigel pitched his second complete game in as many weeks, allowing only six hits with four strikeouts.

Andrew Andreychik ’16 carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning of game three. Andreychik let up one run in the sixth before being relieved by righty Tucker Rekucki ’15 in the seventh. The Leopards scored three more runs to make it a 5-4 ballgame before Rekucki recorded the last two outs with the bases loaded for his sixth save of the season. Sam Clark ’17 led the offense as he recorded four of the team’s nine hits. Unfortunately, the Bison could not close out the four-game sweep, falling to the Leopards 7-3 in game four. Xavier Hammond ’15 pitched only 3.2 innings, allowing five runs (one earned) off six hits. Max Kra ’16 and Tom Hrabchak ’14 came out of the bullpen to allow two runs off four hits.

“In the final game, the balls that dropped in for hits all weekend didn’t drop, and the errors we made in the field put us in a hole,” Austin said. “They had a couple kids who could swing it, and we shot ourselves in the foot.”

The Bison’s doubleheader against St. Bonaventure slated for April 22 was cancelled due to rain. They look to improve their record as the season draws to a close this tomorrow and Sunday with a four-game series against Holy Cross at Depew Field.