We’re closing in on the end of the spring sports season, but we haven’t reached the finish line just yet. This week’s Buffalo State Sports Round-up has nine games on tap from the final three teams left playing. Should we jump right into it? I think so.
Men’s and Women’s Track & Field:
In the final competition of the regular season, the men’s and women’s track & field teams took a trip down I-90 for the Fredonia Invite – and the Bengals were on top of their game.
Natalia Sawyer, per usual, got the party started, leaving her competitors in the dust to win the 400-meter hurdles. Ethan Mitrano and Nyla Wilson-Epps followed suit, taking home victories in the discus throw and hammer throw, respectively.
In the men’s 400-meter race, three Bengals finished inside the top 10 – Shiloh Cornel placed third, D’Antonio Lawrence placed fourth, and Terrell Price took home ninth. The same occurred in the 800-meter, with Luke Triplet placing fifth, Pablo Ortiz placing sixth, and Sidney Morris rounding out the bunch in eighth.
The high jump brought even more success for the Bengals. On the women’s side, Madison MacNeill and Heidi House finished second and third, respectively, and on the men’s side, Quinn Grover finished third, while Christian Chance finished right behind him in fourth.
The outdoor season is far from over, as next weekend marks the beginning of the postseason – each team will head to SUNY Cortland for the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Championships.
Softball:
No rest for the Buffalo State softball team this past week, as they hit the field six times in a trifecta of doubleheaders. It all began on Wednesday afternoon when the squad welcomed nationally-ranked University of Rochester to campus – and the opening game was a barnburner.
The Yellow Jackets got to starter Izzy Pedzek early, earning a run off of the Bengals’ ace in the top of the first inning. After an empty bottom of the first, the Bengals’ offense came to life in the second inning with a two-run double by Natalie Burch and an RBI single by Ashley Jedrich to take a 3-1 lead. The next two innings, they traded blows, scoring a run apiece, which kept the Bengals in front by two, 5-3.
In the top of the seventh, with the game at stake, the Yellow Jackets capitalized on a Buffalo State error to score two runs, knotting the game at five. UofR’s Maddie White kept the Bengals off the board in the bottom half of the inning, sending this game to extras.
After the Yellow Jackets came up empty, the Bengals flipped the script, capitalizing on a UofR error to seal a 6-5 win – arguably the team’s biggest win yet. But the day’s work wasn’t done yet.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Bengals carried all of their momentum over from the opening game win, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning – we were headed towards a stunning sweep. However, the Yellow Jackets turned the tide heavily in their favor, scoring a combined nine runs over the next innings to ultimately put this game on ice. UofR cruised to a 10-4 win to avoid Buffalo State bringing out the brooms.
On Friday afternoon, the team took the bus over to SUNY Cortland for their first of two weekend doubleheaders. The opening game vs the Red Dragons shall be known as the Ella Stewart Game.
The Ella Stewart Game started with a home run by none other than Ella Stewart – just the fifth home run hit by a Bengal this season. An inning later, another home run was hit. Can you guess by whom? That’s right, Ella Stewart – her three-run blast made the score 5-0. The Red Dragons got their licks in, earning their first run in the second inning before a two-run homer by Kaeli McAnally put SUNY Cortland on the doorstep of a comeback.
In the sixth inning, a Grace Albano single led to a critical throwing error by the Red Dragons, bringing home a run for the Bengals to create space on the scoreboard. A few batters later, Ella Stewart put an exclamation point on her career-best day, racking up two RBIs on a double deep to the outfield that clinched an 8-3 win.
The second game of the Friday doubleheader was one the Bengals would like to erase from their memory, as they allowed 12 runs in the first three innings, which led to a mercy rule finish in five innings.
To round out the week, the Bengals went back on the road to play SUNY Morrisville, and it was a short day at the office. In the top of the first inning, the team exploded for five runs, including a two-run tank by Izzy Pezdek. The massacre continued throughout, with the Bengals scoring three runs, five runs, and three more runs over the next few innings to end the game in a five-inning mercy rule, 16-1.
The Bengals held the Mustangs off the scoreboard in the second game – starting pitcher Danielle Palisin allowed just two hits during her five innings of work. A five-run top of the fifth for Buffalo State forced a second-straight mercy rule finish, 8-0.
The softball team’s 4-2 record this week has them sitting at 21-11 overall and 8-6 in SUNYAC conference play. Because of this success, the squad has (once again) been awarded the Buffalo State Sports Round-up Team of the Week. Congratulations!
Next week, the Bengals finish the regular season with another triple-doubleheader, highlighted by Senior Day vs Plattsburgh State on Saturday afternoon.
Women’s Lacrosse:
This week was as big as any for the women’s lacrosse team: the start of the SUNYAC Tournament. But before then, they had one last regular season game to play – a classic “Battle By The Lake” vs Fredonia.
The Bengals came to play early on Wednesday night, as Vanessa Willick and Kira Grzechowiak each netted a goal in the opening minutes to gain a quick advantage. Willick added another late in the first quarter to make the score 3-0. It was all Bengals…until it wasn’t.
Fredonia, who must’ve needed a quarter to find their footing, erupted in the second quarter. By the 4:42 mark of the second quarter, the Blue Devils had tied the game at four, then took the lead less than two minutes later. A clutch free-position goal by Grzechowiak with 29 seconds tied things up at five before halftime. The game was back at square one.
A penalty at the end of the first half put the Bengals in man-down defense to start the second half, which quickly paid dividends for Fredonia, scoring a goal in the opening minute. After an eight-minute scoring drought, the Bengals forced another tie by way of defensemen Syrianna Running-Rabbit’s first goal of the season. Before the third quarter concluded, Emilee Josker gave Buffalo State the lead back with an unassisted goal.
Both defensive units anchored down in the fourth quarter, but the Blue Devils broke through first with a game-tying goal just before the 11-minute mark. Three consecutive turnovers by the Bengals gave way to a lead-taking goal for Fredonia – the pressure now mounting for Buffalo State. Under pressure, Vanessa Willick delivered, scoring a free-position goal to knot this game up, yet again.
Fouls and turnovers continued to haunt the Bengals down the stretch, though goalkeeper Brielle Lum backed the squad up with two free-position saves in a short span. Tragically, another Buffalo State foul gifted Fredonia a man-up opportunity, and Lum couldn’t bail them out this time. Vanessa Willick put one more shot on goal, but the Blue Devils denied the try and sealed a “Battle By The Lake” comeback victory at Coyer Field.
The Bengals finished the regular season on a three-game losing streak – down, deflated, demoralized…but never out. Time for the SUNYAC Tournament! In the first round, the Buffalo State Bengals matched up with the No. 3-seed, the New Paltz Hawks.
Foul trouble followed the Bengals into this game, as a quick foul set up a free-position and unassisted goal. 2-0 Hawks in a flash – they continued the onslaught with a third goal minutes later. Finally, Elona Jackson capitalized on a free-position goal opportunity to show that the Bengals had a pulse. At the end of the first quarter, the squad trailed 4-1.
The Bengals drew first blood in the second quarter, courtesy of Emilee Josker on another free-position goal try. Kira Grzechowiak felt the momentum shifting and decided to get in on the scoring, netting her 40th goal of the season to make it a one-goal game. The Bengals were heating up. Over the last nine minutes, nothing could stop either team’s offense – New Paltz and Buffalo State scored two goals each, tilting the scoreboard just slightly in favor of New Paltz, 6-5.
The Bengals felt confident about the way they finished the first half…maybe a little too confident. The Hawks caught the squad by surprise with back-to-back goals in the first two minutes of the third quarter, stretching their lead back to three. Kaylee Cadez didn’t take too kindly to that, bringing the Bengals back within two with a much-needed goal. She doubled up minutes later to get the game back to one – big-time performance by one of the Bengals’ most important players. That ended the scoring in the third quarter, sending the game to the fourth – the Bengals’ season on the line.
Goals came at a premium in the first 11 minutes of the fourth quarter, as neither side could get the ball past the stout defense being played – the Bengals were running out of time. With 3:51 left to play, New Paltz’s Mia Baldinger netted the first goal in 19 minutes of action, and had the Hawks seeing the second round in their future…but not so fast. With just over two minutes remaining, Kaylee Cadez completed the hat trick, showing signs of life for an assumed dead-in-the-water unit.
Grzechowiak drew control on the ensuing faceoff, and as the Bengals pushed upfield, Vanessa Willick lost the ball, allowing New Paltz to gain possession…and never give it back. By a final score of 9-8, the New Paltz Hawks ended the Buffalo State Bengals’ season in the first round of the SUNYAC Tournament.
We’d like to give a special shoutout to the women’s lacrosse team on their 2026 campaign. It saw its ups, it saw its downs, but the team stayed together throughout it all and fought their hearts out until the very last beat. The program has been due to break the glass ceiling, and next year just might be the year to bring home a SUNYAC Tournament Championship.
Another team’s season is in the books, putting us in the home stretch of the spring sports season. Keep your eyes peeled for the final edition of the Buffalo State Sports Round-up for the spring semester next week, right here at The Record!
