University of Toledo
CENTRAL MICHIGAN
Central Michigan Bounces Toledo in MAC Series Opener, 13-1
4/27/2007 12:00:00 PM | Baseball
Final Stats
TOLEDO, OH - Toledo suffered a 13-1 setback to Central Michigan in Friday's Mid-American Conference series opener at chilly Scott Park. The Rockets (18-18, 8-8 MAC) tied their season low with three hits and dropped the opening game of the league weekend series for the fourth time in six opportunities this season.
UT had no answer for the Chippewas' starting pitcher Josh Collmenter this afternoon, who was nearly perfect on the mound and finished with 13 strikeouts. Collmenter surrendered just two hits to senior Joel Visser and the other to freshman Josh Wierzba to improve to 7-2 for the year. At one point in the contest, the 2006 second-team All-MAC selection had retired 17-straight UT batters and it was not until the ninth inning that he allowed a UT runner to reach third base.
At the plate for the visitors, CMU scored runs in five different innings and finished with 14 hits against four UT hurlers. Tyler Stovall, Ben Humphrey, Noah Lankford and Jeff Helps paced the Chippewas' offensive attack with two hits apiece.
CMU started quickly and utilized a round tripper off the bat of Stovall in the top of the first to take an advantage it would not surrender. With the wind blowing out, the MAC's leading hitter belted a 2-1 fastball from junior LHP Kyle Rawlings over the wall in right-center.
The visitors added to their advantage a frame later with four runs on three hits to end the afternoon for Rawlings. The first four Central Michigan batters reached base and came around to score to establish a five-run cushion. The big hit was a two-run blast off the bat of James Teas, also to right-center, and sent Rawlings (1-4) to the showers following his shortest outing of the season.
The Chippewas continued to pour it on and plated a single run in the fourth, six in the seventh and one final tally in the ninth to make the score, 13-0.
Despite the double-digit deficit, Toledo fought to the bitter end and a solo home run by Visser in the bottom of the ninth denied the shutot and put the home team on the scoreboard.
The two teams will continue their three-game series tomorrow with a 1:00 p.m. first pitch.
