TOLEDO, Ohio - Eighth-seeded Toledo meets top-seeded Kent State on Wednesday, May 24 in the first round of the Mid-American Conference Baseball Tournament at Sprenger Stadium in Avon, Ohio. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
The Rockets edged their way into the MAC Tournament on the final day of the regular season. For Toledo, it is its ninth conference tournament appearance in the last dozen seasons. UT linked three-straight series wins over Western Michigan, Bowling Green and Buffalo early in conference action. Toledo was then swept in a pair of series falling to 7-11 in league play. The Rockets secured an important win over MAC West champs Central Michigan and notched their ninth conference win over Eastern Michigan in the regular-season finale.
Senior
Steven Calhoun will start for the Rockets on Wednesday. The left-hander has recorded three wins in 14 starts with a 4.06 ERA in 93.0 innings. The offense will be led by juniors
Dalton Bollinger and
Brad Boss who enter the tournament with .278 and .274 batting averages, respectively. Bollinger leads the team with 62 hits, 18 doubles, 40 RBIs and is tied for the team lead with sophomore
Ross Adolph with seven home runs.Â
Kent State captured its second-consecutive outright MAC regular season championship. For the Golden Flashes, it is their 14th overall regular season title. KSU won each of its MAC series prior to dropping two of three in its final series of the season at Ohio.
Left-handed pitcher Eli Kraus will get the start for Kent State. In their last matchup, Calhoun and Kraus each threw 9.0 shutout innings in a 15-inning battle. Toledo dropped each of its three contests at Kent State by scores of 1-0, 4-3 and 10-1. Both of the Rockets'Â one-run losses came in walk-off fashion. The Rockets and the Flashes have met in the conference tournament three times in the last decade with KSU claiming victories in all three.
The winner of Wednesday's game will meet the winner of the 8:00 p.m. game between No. 4 Ball State and No. 5 Ohio on Thursday, May 25 at 8:00 p.m.. The losers of the two games will meet on Thursday at 1:00 p.m.
