University of Toledo
ILLINOIS-CHICAGO
Toledo Blanked at Illinois-Chicago, 3-0
5/18/2005 12:00:00 PM | Baseball
CHICAGO, IL - Toledo (14-36) suffered a 3-0 setback at Illinois-Chicago (34-18-1) on Tuesday afternoon in non-conference action at Les Miller Field. The Rockets were limited to four hits against three UIC pitchers and suffered their third shutout of the season.
UIC's Ryan Martin (2-1) stymied UT over six innings and allowed just one hit with two strikeouts to pick up the victory. Martin faced only 19 batters over those six innings. Travis Kempf came on to throw the next two innings of scoreless relief, before Jason Foster pitched the ninth frame to collect his fifth save of the season. Illinois-Chicago was also aided by three double plays.
Larry Gempp (2-for-3, 2 runs scored) and Shane Crowder (2-for-4) paced Illinois-Chicago with multi-hit contests.
UT struggled to put anything together offensively against UIC and did not have a runner reach second base until the eighth inning.
Freshman LHP Levi Curry (1-3) had another quality start going seven innings and allowed three runs on five hits with two strikeouts. Freshman RHP Steve Wenning relieved Curry and tossed a scoreless inning of relief.
After three-and-a-half scoreless innings, UIC plated a pair of runs on two hits to take a lead it would not relinquish. The Flames did all their damage with two outs. Bryan Nolte drew a two-out walk and Gempp followed with a single through the right side to put two runners on base. Mike Bruszer then singled into the gap in right-center and scored Nolte with the game's first run. UT sophomore RF Joel Visser threw home on the hit attempting to cut down Nolte at the plate, but his throw was late. On Visser's throw home, Bruszer took second base and Gempp was able to score UIC's second run.
The Flames finished off their scoring with an insurance run in the seventh on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze by Jeff Gremley, scoring Gempp who led off the inning with a double down the right-field line to make the final 3-0.
Toledo's best opportunity to score occurred in the eighth inning. With one out, sophomore Ryan Laude laced a single up the middle and junior Nick Lance was hit by a pitch to put a pair of runners on base. Unfortunately, Kempf got UT junior Jason Watson to strikeout and freshman Brian Sanders to ground into a fielders choice to send the rally.
Toledo returns to action tomorrow when it hosts Bowling Green at Scott Park in a non-conference tilt. The first pitch is slated for 3:00 p.m.
