University of Toledo
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Toledo Loses Heartbreaker at Eastern Michigan, 5-4
5/12/2007 12:00:00 PM | Baseball
Final Stats
YPSILANTI, MI - Eastern Michigan scored five runs in the sixth inning and claimed a 5-4 over Toledo in Saturday's Mid-American Conference action at Oestrike Stadium. With the loss, the Rockets have dropped three-in-a-row and fall to 23-24 overall, 11-12 in the league.
The Eagles recorded four of their six hits for the contest in the game-changing sixth to defeat the Rockets for the second-consecutive day. EMU emerged victorious in yesterday's series opener, 12-1.
Senior Greg Gompf (1-2), the second of two UT pitchers, was tagged with the loss. Gompf allowed one run on one hit with three strikeouts in 2.2 innings of relief duty.
Offensively, junior Jake Swint and freshman Josh Johnson fueled UT's 11-hit attack with three hits apiece, while freshman Tim Krofcheck had a pair of tallies.
The Rockets looked sharp early and scored an unearned run in the first inning. With one out and Swint at second, junior Scott Boley hit a ground ball that eluded EMU shortstop Jeff Hehr and rolled deep enough into the outfield to allow Swint to score the game's first tally.
An inning later, UT registered a pair of runs after the first two outs were recorded to make it a 3-0 game. Junior Sean Boley started the rally by reaching on an EMU throwing error. Junior Drew Hoisington and Krofcheck followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases, before Swint laced a single through the right side to establish a three-run cushion.
Toledo continued to attack offensively in the third and took advantage of EMU's third error in as many innings to establish a 4-0 lead. As was the case in the second, the Rockets did their damage after the first two outs were in the books. Johnson ripped a double into the gap in right-center and the Archbold, OH native came around to score on a fielding error by the EMU first basemen Patrick Dean off the bat of sophomore Josh Colliver.
The lead would hold until the crucial bottom of the sixth, when the Eagles exploded for five runs on four hits, including two for extra-bases. The home team was aided in its rally with two UT errors in the inning and sent nine batters to the plate to end the evening for Rawlings. The Bexley, OH native, who was unhittable through the first five innings, was unable to out of the jam in the sixth.
As successful as the Rockets were in the opening three innings offensively, it was the exact opposite the final six innings. Only once in that time did UT have a runner reach scoring position.
The two teams will wrap up the three-game series tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.
