Tonight is the Bisons annual Star Wars Night and will be wearing specialized Star Wars jerseys with an in-game auction of the game-worn tops to benefit the American Heart Association.

Saturday, June 11, 2011 (7:05 p.m.) – Coca-Cola Field
Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (27-36, T4th(-12.0), North)
RHP Chris Schwinden (3-3, 3.20)

Columbus Clippers (40-22, 1st(+3.5), West)
RHP Corey Kluber (3-4, 6.10)

TODAY’S GAME: Tonight, the Bisons take on the Columbus Clippers in the first game of a four-game series from Coca-Cola Field (7:05 p.m.). The Bisons are 1-3 so far on the homestand after a series defeat at the hands of the Indianapolis Indians. Buffalo is an even 17-17 at home this season

VS. THE CLIPPERS: Tonight’s game is the Bisons first against the Clippers this season. Last year, the Herd won six of the eight games over Columbus, including a four-game sweep at Coca-Cola Field, August 5-8. That series is the last time the Bisons have completed a four-game sweep of an opponent.

SCHWING AND MISS: RHP CHRIS SCHWINDEN leads the Bisons with a 3.20ERA and 48 strikeouts this season. The righty will make his 11th start of the season tonight. Schwinden delivered a quality outing his last time out, allowing just three runs in six innings to Gwinnett last Monday. At home this season, Schwinden has posted a 2.78ERA in four starts.

WELCOME BACK: Last night, INF ZACH LUTZ had a single in his first at-bat with the club in almost two months. Lutz finished the game 2-5 with a double and two runs scored. The infielder missed 44 games on the disabled list before rejoining the Herd. Combined with his late-season promotion last year, Lutz now has 12 extra-base hits in his first 19 career Triple-A games.

FIGGY WITH IT: INF LUIS FIGUEROA brings a six-game hit streak into tonight’s action. The veteran has averaged .316 (6-19) with five runs scored during the stretch. Figueroa has also drawn nine walks in his last seven games and now sports a .387 on-base percentage in 28 games with the team.

OUR PAL, VAL: INF VALENTINO PASCUCCI homered for the second straight game Friday, launching a two-run shot to deep centerfield. Since May 10, the slugger has 34RBI or eight more than any other player in the IL. In that 29 game span, Pascucci has averaged .323 (30-93) with seven homers.

BISONS BITS: The Bisons matched a season high with 14 men left on base last night…Bisons batters have drawn 16 walks over the past two games…INF LUIS HERNANDEZ has averaged .450 (9-20) over a five-game hit streak.

METS UPDATE: The Mets (31-32) blew out the Pirates last night by an 8-1 score. Former Bisons RHP DILLON GEE worked eight innings to improve his perfect record to 7-0 on the season. He allowed just one run and struck out five. INF JOSE REYES homered and had three more hits. The Mets face the Pirates at 7:05 p.m.

The Bisons dropped the final game of the series to Indianapolis, 12-6, at Coca-Cola Field on Friday night. It was the first time the Bisons have lost a Friday night bash since August 21, 2009 against Syracuse.

Indianapolis scored most of their runs in three’s in the second, fourth and eighth inning. The Tribe scored just one-run in the seventh and two-runs in the ninth to take a commanding lead, 12-4.

“They came out swinging, they did a good job of hitting mistake pitches and driving the ball,” said manager Tim Teufel.

The Indians plated three-runs in the second inning after Bisons starter Mark Cohoon walked the Tribes starting pitcher Rudy Owens with two outs. Chase d’Arnaud followed Owens with a three-run homerun into right-center-field. It was d’Arnaud’s fourth homerun of the 2011 season.

“d’Arnaud really jumped on that three-run homer, that really jet streamed out. I know he’s strong but I think the wind helped that one a little bit,” Teufel said.

The Bisons got in trouble again during the fourth inning by walking the leadoff batter Miles Durham. Durham scored on Eric Fryer’s double into left-field, and Fryer scored on Gorkys Hernandez’ single into center-field.

G. Hernandez moved to second on the throw from center-field to home, as the Bisons attempted to get Fryer. G. Hernandez moved to third on sacrifice bunt laid down by Owens, and then scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Brian Friday.

The Indians added a seventh run in the seventh-inning after John Bowker got in the hit column with a double and then scored on Durham’s infield single. Luis Hernandez made a great diving stop but the throw was late to first. Bowker never stopped running, going from second to home on the hit.

“We didn’t make good pitches, we didn’t execute and we paid the price for that early,” said Teufel. “Then they started not executing and we started getting hits, by the time you looked up there was 30 hits on the board. Not a good pitching night for either team.”

The Herd answered in the second-inning with one-run, and with two-runs in the fifth on a blast from Valentino Pascucci. The monster homerun left the park to the right of the giant HD scoreboard landing in the pre-game party pavilion.

It was Pascucci’s seventh homerun of the season; he went three-for-five with a single, double, and a homerun, just a triple shy of the cycle.

Indianapolis added three-runs in the eighth-inning to go ahead by seven; Alex Presley drove a double into left-field plating his 33 RBI of the season. Then in the ninth the Tribe scored two more runs on a single by d’Arnaud.

Luis Figueroa extended his hit streak to six-games while driving in his third RBI of the season in the eighth, bringing the Bisons within six. Pascucci came to the plate with the bases loaded after Michael Fisher walked and Luis Hernandez singled with two-outs. Pascucci flied out to end the rally.

The Herd continued to battle down eight-runs in the ninth-inning, getting their first two batters to second and third before Jason Botts singled them both in to cut the lead to six-runs with no outs.

“It’s the make-up of these guys there in the trenches, their gamers, they don’t take losing lightly,” Teufel said.

The Bisons couldn’t overcome the six-run deficit losing, 12-6, Friday night. Bisons starter Cohoon got the loss after pitching five innings, giving up six-hits, six-runs, three-walks, one-homerun and striking out three.

“The guys went out and they swung the bats pretty good tonight, a lot of hard hit balls, just one of those nights were we came up on the short side,” said Pascucci.

Game Notes: The Mets recalled Lucas Duda, he averaged .413 with seven homeruns and 15 RBI in his last 14 games with the Bisons…Indianapolis outscored the Herd, 48-34 in the eight games played both at Coca-Cola Field and Victory Field in Indianapolis…Valentino Pascucci homered for the second game in a row, it was his seventh homerun of the season and moved his RBI total to 39…The Bisons left 14 runners on base during Friday’s contest, both teams combined for 30 hits in the game.

Friday, June 10, 2011 (7:35 p.m.) – Coca-Cola Field
Radio: WWKB AM 1520, bisons.com

Buffalo Bisons (27-35, T4th(-12.0), North)
LHP Mark Cohoon (1-1, 9.00)

Indianapolis Indians (30-32, 3rd(-10.0), West)
LHP Rudy Owens (5-4, 4.65)

TODAY’S GAME: Tonight, the Bisons take on the Indianapolis Indians in the final game of a four-game series from Coca-Cola Field (7:35 p.m.). Trailing 2-1 in the series, the Herd needs a win tonight to earn a split. Tomorrow, the Bisons will host the Columbus Clippers for the start of another four-game series.

FRIDAY NIGHT: The Bisons are 3-0 on fridaynightbash!® games this season. Buffalo was 9-0 on home Friday’s last year and hasn’t lost a fridaynightbash!® game since only taking one game of a doubleheader against Syracuse on Friday, August 21, 2009 (Won Game 1, 7-2, but lost Game 2, 2-1).

VS. THE INDIANS: Tonight’s game is the final match-up between the Bisons and the Indians this season. Indy has already clinched the season series with five wins. Indianapolis won three of the four games at Victory Field, May 17-20. This is Buffalo’s first losing matchup of the season, having split their first three completed season series against Louisville, Charlotte and Gwinnett.

ON THE BUMP: LHP MARK COHOON makes his third career Triple-A start tonight. The Mets 2010 Organizational Pitcher of the Year is coming off his first loss with the Bisons. The southpaw allowed six runs in five innings to Gwinnett on June 5. Cohoon was 1-3 with a 3.81ERA in nine starts at Double-A Binghamton to begin the 2011 season.

WHO’S IN: OF BUBBA BELL is back with the Bisons after a six-game stint with Binghamton. The outfielder hit .261 (6-23) with a home run and three RBI in six games with the B-Mets. INF ZACH LUTZ also returns for his first action with the club since April 21. Lutz missed 44 games on the disabled list with a right hamstring strain and a finger injury. He went 0-8 with an RBI in a pair of games at Single-A St. Lucie earlier this week.

WHO’S OUT: OF LUCAS DUDA takes his red-hot bat to the Mets as the slugger has been recalled. Duda had averaged .413 (19-46) with seven home runs and 15RBI in his last 14 games. OF KIRK NIEUWENHUIS has also been placed on the disabled list with a left shoulder strain. Nieuwenhuis leads the Bisons with a .298 batting average and 25 extra-base hits.

METS UPDATE: The Mets (30-32) collected a 4-1 win in Milwaukee last night. New York outhit the Brewers, 11-4, and got 7.2 solid innings from former Bisons LHP JON NIESE. Another former Herd ace goes tonight as RHP DILLON GEE looks to improve on his perfect 6-0 record. New York takes on Pittsburgh at 7:05 p.m.

The New York Mets today announced that they have recalled OF LUCAS DUDA from the Buffalo Bisons.

This will be Duda’s third stint with the Mets this season. In 38 games with the Bisons, Duda has averaged .302 (39-129) with eight doubles, 10 home runs and 24RBI.

The slugger has been especially tough since being activated off the disabled list (mid back strain) on May 27. In his last 14 games, Duda has averaged .413 (19-46) with four doubles, seven home runs, 15RBI and 14 runs scored.

via: bisons.com

In an early start on Thursday the Bisons hammered out 15-runs to beat Indianapolis for only the second time this year, 15-2, at Coca-Cola Field.

With the Bisons leading, 11-2 in the ninth inning Indians reliever Dan Meyer walked the bases loaded and was ejected after hitting Jesus Feliciano. Meyer was replaced on the mound by second basemen Shelby Ford.

Fords first batter was Luis Hernandez who wasted no time in hitting the second pitch Ford tossed him over the left-field wall for his first grand-slam of the season. It was the third homerun of the game for the Bisons.

“I just tried to hit the ball and get a base hit, and the grand-slam happened,” said Hernandez.

The Bisons scored five of their nine runs in the third inning. Indians starter Sean Gallagher walked Luis Figueroa to leadoff the inning and followed that by giving up a single to Michael Fisher. Lucas Duda walked to fill the bases full of Bisons bringing Fernando Martinez to the plate.

Martinez slapped a ground ball to Indians first baseman John Bowker, which he threw away allowing Figueroa to score. Fisher followed Figueroa in to score the second run of the inning on the throwing error.

With runners on the corners Valentino Pascucci drilled a, 2-2, pitch over the left-field wall scoring three-runs and giving the Bisons a, 5-0, lead. The three runs brought Pascucci’s RBI total to 37, tying his total from the 2010 season.

Lucas Duda added two more runs on his seventh homerun since returning from the disabled list on May 28. In his last 14 games Duda has 11 extra-base hits with 13 runs scored.

The Herd started the scoring in the second inning getting two runs. After two singles, Hernandez drilled a ground rule double into center-field to score Martinez. Kirk Nieuwenhuis was forced to hold at third, but scored on an RBI ground-out by Raul Chavez.

“I try to put up zero’s no matter what the score is, I tried not to even think about the score, but when their putting up runs like that you tend to relax a bit more,” said Bisons starter Pat Misch

Misch went seven innings, giving up eight hits, and one run while striking out two. Misch was credited with his first win of the season. “He looks like he’s throwing the ball a lot better, keeping the ball down. Everything works off pitching at the knees for him and today he did a better job of that,” said manager Tim Teufel. In his five previous starts the Bisons scored first but then either gave up the lead or the tie in the next half inning. Misch broke that habit thanks in large part to Chavez.

With the bases loaded and just one out in the third inning, Chavez picked Chase d’Arnaud off second for the second out of the inning. Misch proceeded to get Alex Presley to ground out, ending the inning and keeping the Tribe off the board.

“The biggest play of the day was Chavez throwing the runner out at second base, you got bases loaded one out, a lot can go wrong there but with the way Chavez threw the ball down to second, he’s done a great job all year,” said Teufel.

Game Notes: Lucas Duda took his hit streak to eight-games with his two-run homerun in the fourth inning, it’s his seventh homerun since returning from the disabled list…Valentino Pascucci got his 37 RBI of the 2011 season tying his total from the 2010 season with a three-run homerun in the third inning…The Herd faced Shelby Ford in the eighth inning, Ford is a second basemen who came into pitch after Dan Meyer was ejected…Luis Herandez hit the Bisons second grand-slam of the 2011 season off of Ford.