2023 Erie–Buffalo Baseball Club Wins MUNY AA–Buffalo MSBL Open Division Championship
MUNY-Buffalo MSBL, Open Division
Erie-Buffalo Baseball Club 6, Buffalo A’s 1 (Game two in best of three series sweep)
August 21, 2023 – It was another beautiful night for baseball in Western New York. It was game two of the best-of-three series between Erie-Buffalo and the Buffalo A’s.
The Erie-Buffalo Baseball Club won the regular season title going 15 wins and 0 losses.
On Sunday, in game one of the series, the teams battled for nine innings with Erie-Buffalo winning on a single by Alex Seifert with runners on second and third in the bottom of the ninth. Chris Newman started for Erie-Buffalo and went four innings. Matt Keating came in relief and finished the game getting the win. (4-3 victory)
The teams faced off for game two with Erie-Buffalo one victory from clinching the title. Once again, a dominant pitching performance this time from Andrew Tobias. He threw seven innings, giving up four hits, and striking out 10. Erie-Buffalo was winning 2-0 with bases loaded when Alex Seifert once again came up big and hit a grand slam.
The season was one of huge pitching with the staff of Matt Keating, Andrew Tobias, Chris Newman, Noah Huard, Chris Vitale, and Harry Hartman throwing six shutouts. The team’s ERA was 1.22 with 241 strikeouts in 19 games.
The offense was powered by Jesse Zellner .469 batting average, .813 slugging percentage, and three home runs. Alex Seifert .397 batting average, three home runs, and 26 RBIs. Jordan Kowalski .378 batting average, Alex Webster .354 batting average. Other big contributors were Tom Anderson, Mike Austin, Christian Cabrera, Brandon Caboot, Joe Ferrando, Eric Flynn, and Mike Webster.
Ralph Proulx (MSBL HOF ‘10) league President, would go on to win three Championships in the week. He managed the Erie Buffalo Open Age and 35+ teams to championships and earned a championship in the 45+ division as a player with The Buffalo Nine.
‘The team has competed from start to finish this season. I couldn’t be prouder of them. Also, special thanks to coaches, Glenn Hauptman and Jim Galbo for their dedication to the team.”
– Ralph Proulx