David Amaro

BUFFALO, NY - After dropping the series opener to Buffalo on Friday, the Bowling Green baseball team rebounding to win, 8-5, on Saturday afternoon at Amherst Audubon Field.

Bowling Green struck for three runs in the top of the second inning to take a 3-0 lead. The Bulls got one of the runs back in the bottom of the third inning compliments of a solo home run by Chris McGraw (Summerville, SC/Stratford). The Falcons got RBI hits from Kevin Longstreth, Tyler Wasserman and David Barkholz to score three more runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 6-1 lead.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the sacks juiced, David Amaro (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) stepped to the plate and launched a grand slam to cut the Bowling Green lead to 6-5. It was the first home run of the sophomore catcher's career. However, the Falcons scored a run in the sixth inning and a run in the eighth inning to extend their lead to 8-5. Bowling Green closer Neil Schmitz came in and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season.

Matt Hundley earned the win in relief for the Falcons. UB starter Mark Tourangeau (Oakville, Ontario/Queen Elizabeth Park) allowed two earned runs over three innings, but left the game after sustaining an injury. McGraw pitched well in relief as he allowed only one run on two hits and struck out five over 3.1 innings.

With the win, Bowling Green improved to 16-7 overall and 4-4 in the MAC. Buffalo fell to 7-19 overall and 1-3 in the conference. The rubber game of the series is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Amherst Audubon Field with first pitch slated for 1 pm.