By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE —The St. Bonaventure baseball team had been defending its home field ferociously.
It had picked up its first series win of the season and had seemingly cured the defensive woes that had condemned the team throughout the early portion of the season.
The Bonnies were 7-1 at home since renovations were completed on Fred Handler Park.
That was until Dayton came to town.
The Bonnies and the Flyers, each carrying 6-12 records in Atlantic 10 play into their series matchup, are both trying to find a way into the top six in the conference before the season comes to a close.
Unfortunately for the former, that path became all the more difficult after suffering a series sweep that was capped by a 7-6 loss in game three.
The Flyers boast the best batting average of any team in the Atlantic 10 (.301). They put that offensive firepower on display against the Bonnies, connecting for double-digit hits in each game of the series — one game of which was a seven-inning affair in a double header.
However, according to Bona head coach Jason Rathbun, the high hit tally of the Flyers was not due to any miscues from the pitching staff. Instead, he chalked it up to a spotty defense and an offense that was unable to keep pace with its counterparts.
“I don’t think the pitching staff did a bad job this weekend,” Rathbun said. “I don’t think we played very good defense and we certainly didn’t hit it all. I think when you have a team that’s coming in that’s hot with the bats and one of the best hitting teams in the conference, you got to come out and swing the bats as well. I didn’t think we did a very good job of that. Yeah, just disappointed in our offense this weekend.”
St. Bonaventure’s Paulino Enger (23) winds up a pitch against Dayton. Enger struck out five batters in five innings for the Bonnies. (Spencer Bates)
The Bonnies had a combined 19 hits this weekend, which paled in comparison to the 32 that the Flyers put on the board. Granted a majority of that differential came from the quiet offensive performance in the second game of the series, in which Bona was out-hit 11-2.
In the first and third game of the series, Bona held its own in terms of keeping up with its opposition’s hit tally.
Where the difference lies is when the Bonnies got their hits.
“(We weren’t) stringing together hits,” Rathbun said. “I think on Friday, we had two hits through the first six innings. I think today we had one hit through the first six innings. We did a little bit better scoring, and getting some hits on the board, but it just wasn’t enough. Just not enough on the weekend.”
Following the team’s previous series, a sweep in its favor over defending champions Rhode Island at home, Rathbun liked where his team was at and noted he could see them, with the momentum they had, finding a way into the top six of the conference standings before season’s end, and thus getting a berth into the A10 tournament.
St. Bonaventure’s Antonio Cordeiro (7) swings at a pitch against Dayton. Cordeiro went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Bonnies (Spencer Bates)
But this series against Dayton was a critical step in seeing those aspirations become reality.
Now, the Bonnies are well and truly on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. With three series left to go, only one of which being at home, Rathbun is now casting out all thoughts of a postseason bid. Instead, opting to fixate on the day-to-day.
“I think we just got to finish the season strong,” Rathbun said. “I don’t think the playoffs is necessarily something that we should be thinking about right now. I think this weekend was a big weekend for that to kind of put things into perspective a little bit. Being tied with Dayton and kind of in that mix, we needed to do our job this weekend and, unfortunately, we just didn’t do it. We didn’t put ourselves in a very good position. So, the playoffs and postseasons are something that I don’t think we should really be worrying about right now. Just trying to get better, day-to-day and finish the season strong.”
St. Bonaventure’s next game will be a mid-week fixture at home against Niagara on April 28 at 3 p.m.
