BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - The University at Buffalo baseball team opened their weekend Mid-American Conference series at Bowling Green with a 16-7 loss to the Falcons at Steller Field Friday afternoon. The Bulls fell to 6-18 overall and 2-7 in MAC play while Bowling Green moved to 16-8 and 6-2 in league action.

UB jumped out to a first inning 2-0 lead as Brandon DiCesare (Rochester, NY/McQuaid Jesuit) extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a single to right and came around to score on Bryan Sanchez's (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) first homer of the game.

The Falcons tied the contest 2-2 in the bottom of the second as Scott Dukate hit a two-run homer off UB starter Jeff Robertson (Kenmore, NY/Kenmore West). Bowling Green then took a 3-2 lead in the third on an RBI single by Chad Curlis.

The Bulls retook the lead in the fifth. Eric Huber (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) walked later scoring from when Corey Blair's (Oneida, NY/Oneida) line drive to left was dropped by Len Elias tying the game 3-3. Sanchez gave UB a 4-3 lead scoring his second run of the game when Kevin Brown (Amherst, NY/Amherst) lifted a sacrifice fly to right.

Bowling Green took the lead for good in the bottom of the fifth. After Robertson got the first out of the inning, he was forced to leave the game with a tendon injury to his pitching (right) wrist. Mike Leslie (Suffern, NY/Suffern) struck out the first batter he faced, but was unable to get the inning's final out as the Falcons scored five times to take an 8-4 edge. Kelly Hunt scored what turned out to be the winning run on Dukate's RBI single.

UB closed the gap to 8-7 in the sixth as Tim Sova walked and scored on DiCesare's double ending BGSU starter Chris Menke's day. Sanchez then smacked his second homer of the game, his team-leading fifth of the year with a another shot to center off reliever Brandon Henry. Sanchez now has 16 career homers, one shy of tying Marty Cerny's all-time record of 17.

After adding single runs in the sixth and seventh innings, the Falcons struck for six runs in the eighth inning. The final four runs of the inning came home on Aric Christman's grand slam off UB reliever Mark Esposito (Fairport, NY/Fairport).

Sanchez tallied four RBIs and three runs scored with his 3-for-4 day at the plate. DiCesare and Blair also had a pair of hits for the Bulls. Nick Elrod went 4-for-5 for the Falcons with two RBIs while Dukate drove in four.

Menke struck out ten to earn the win while Leslie suffered his first loss of the season. Ryan Lindquist earned his first save allowing no runs and just one hit in the final 3.1 innings.