BASEBALL

Roster  |  Coaches  |  Schedule / Results  |  News

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO - Although jumping out to an early 5-2 lead, the University at Buffalo baseball team dropped a wild 23-10 seven inning contest in Saturday's Mid-American Conference doubleheader opener at Steller Field in Bowling Green.

The nine-inning nightcap was forced to be suspended as heavy thunderstorms moved through the area. Bowling Green leads the second game 11-1 with one out in the bottom of the eighth when play was stopped. The game will resume from where play was halted on Sunday with the regularly scheduled nine-inning contest to follow.

In the opener, the Falcons grabbed an early lead when Corey Loomis hit a two-run homer giving Bowling Green a 2-0 lead.

UB center fielder Rob Golemba (New City, NY/Clarkstown South) put the Bulls on the board in the top of the second with a solo homer to right. Two outs later, the Bulls loaded the bases on a single, a walk and a hit batsman when third baseman Bryan Sanchez (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) cleared the bags with a grand slam to give the Bulls a 5-2 edge. The roundtripper was Sanchez's sixth of the season and tied Marty Cerny's career home run record at 17.

Bowling Green cut the margin to 5-3 in the bottom of the second and added seven runs in both the third and fourth innings as well as five in the fifth to take command of the game, 22-5.

The Bulls added four runs in the sixth. Kevin Brown (Amherst, NY/Amherst) scored on an RBI groundout by Tim Sova (Rochester, NY/Greece-Athena). Eric Huber (Orchard Park, NY/Orchard Park) and Corey Blair (Oneida, NY/Oneida) added run scoring singles and Sanchez scored on a wild pitch to close the gap to 22-9. UB added a final run in the top of the seventh as Huber picked up his second RBI of the game scoring Brown on a single to right.

Brendan Dunford (Buffalo, NY/Timon/St. Jude) took the loss on the hill for the Bulls (6-19, 2-8 MAC). Kyle Knoblauch picked up the pitching win for the Falcons (17-8, 7-2).

Huber led the Bulls with three hits while driving in and scoring a pair of runs. Sanchez and Golemba also added two hits. Brandon DiCesare's 15-game hitting streak was snapped but he scored a run for the Bulls.

In the second game, Bowling Green freshman Neil Schmitz took a no-hitter through seven innings as the Falcons took a 10-0 lead. Blair broke up both the no-hitter and the shutout with solo homer to left center to lead off the eighth.

The suspension of game two forces the squads to finish the game on Sunday prior to their regularly scheduled matchup.