Joe Mihalics

BUFFALO, NY - The University at Buffalo baseball team dropped the opener of a three-game series with Toledo, 5-2, on Friday afternoon at Amherst Audubon Field.

Toledo jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning after Jarrod Resendez, who led off the game with a triple, scored on a passed ball. The Rockets added a run in the top of the second inning on a solo home run by Dan Ruth that gave Toledo a 2-0 lead.

James Kingsley (Medina, NY/Medina) led off the bottom of the second inning with a double to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He scored on an RBI single by Aaron Otto (Lockport, NY/Newfane) to cut the Rockets' lead to 2-1.

An RBI double by Aaron Rouser in the top of the fifth inning extended the Toledo lead to 3-1. UB cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI single by David Amaro (Endicott, NY/Union-Endicott) that scored Joe Mihalics (Tonawanda, NY/Timon/St. Jude). Mihalics, along with Kingsley, had three hits in the game. Toledo added two runs in the top of the eighth inning and held off the Bulls for the victory.

Buffalo outhit the Rockets, 12-8. Chris McGraw (Summerville, SC/Stratford) took the loss after allowing four earned runs on seven hits and striking out eight over 7.2 innings. J.R. Duffey tossed a complete game to pick up the win for the Rockets.

With the loss, the Bulls drop to 13-30 overall and 3-11 in the MAC. Toledo improved to 14-29 overall and 5-11 in the conference. Game two of the three-game series will be played on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm.