April 29, 2006

Final Stats

Bowling Green, OH - The Toledo softball team hung tough with a strong Bowling Green squad but lost on a bottom of the seventh single for the second time this week, as they went home 3-2 losers at BGSU Softball Field. The Falcons improve to 31-20 overall, 12-5 in the Mid-American Conference, while the Rockets drop to 13-35 overall, 4-12 in the MAC. The arch-rivals will square off again tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Both teams scored a pair of runs in the third inning to provide the only scoring until BGSU's late-game heroics in the bottom of the seventh. With two outs in Toledo's half of the third, Brie Ford and Gina Muratori hit back-to-back singles to start things off for the Rockets, before a single by Alison Hess two batters later plated both runners.

The Falcons answered with two of their own in the bottom half of the inning to even the score at two each. The Rockets loaded the bases in the top half of the seventh but were unable to get any runs across. Denise Van Vossen led off the inning with a single and was moved to second with a sacrifice bunt by Leslie Stong. A Ford single moved Van Vossen to third with just one out, before Muratori was hit by a pitch to load up the bases.

The Falcons chose to retire Van Vossen at home after Erica Singer hit a grounder to the third baseman for the second out, and Hess grounded out to the third baseman to end the inning.

A single by Gina Rango in the bottom half of the inning plated the winning run, much like the Rockets experienced in game one vs. Cleveland State on Wednesday when a single in the last at-bat won the game for the opposing team.

Ford, Hess and Van Vossen each had two hits to lead Toledo, while Hess had both RBI.

Sierra Pereira pitched six strong innings on the mound, giving up two runs on six hits and striking out two. Stephanie Moore came in to pitch the seventh and took the loss.

The Rockets have now dropped four straight.