Bisons Fall To Hens In 12 Inning Affair

The Bisons lost a hard-fought game against Toledo this afternoon, 5-2 in 12 innings. The Herd rallied late to tie the with a clutch sacrifice fly from Caleb Gindl in the seventh. The bullpen pitched five great innings in relief of starter Daniel Norris, but the offense failed to seal the deal. Eventually in Chad Jenkins' second inning of work the Hens offense found some life and rallied for three runs.

This Hen's rally came on the heals of a squandered opportunity to win the game in the bottom of the eleventh. Gindl again came to the plate with a chance to be the hero, with the bases loaded and just one out. Unfortunately the right fielder bounced into a 3-2-3 inning-ending double play.

After a few monster offensive performances, the familiar theme of great pitching without any run support plagued the Bisons again.

Daniel Norris pitched well, although he was not quite dominant. He struck out four of the first six to face him, but then he fell into a rough stretch with his command. Russell Martin cited Norris' perfectionist attitude as a flaw for the young lefty, in the sense that he can fall behind hitters trying to throw the perfect pitch. After mowing through hitters in the first two innings it seemed like Norris again tried too hard. He fell behind a few hitters failing to paint the corners, only to leave a fastball over the plate. Back-to-back hits in the third and the fifth scored both runs in just this manor. Norris also surrendered three walks over his six innings, but he did strikeout nine.

Gregory Infante, Bo Schultz, and Colt Hynes all pitched great out of the bullpen, keeping the Bisons in the game. The pen has been a real saving grace for the team over the first two months of the season, buying time for the offense to come around.

Luke Scott is 4-for-9 with three RBIs and walk over his first two games with Buffalo. He has looked confident batting in the middle of the order, and ideally his bat combined with the surging Brad Glenn will lead the Bison's offense to better fortunes.

This was the last game of the home stand for the Bisons, and now they will head on the road for three games with Columbus and four more with Toledo. Miguel Castro will be on the mound Monday looking to rebound from a rough start to his triple-A season.