CHARLOTTE, NC - The University of Toledo softball team dropped a pair of close games to First Pitch Classic host Charlotte on Saturday, falling 7-4 in game one and 4-1 in game two.

The setbacks dropped the Rockets to 0-4 this season, while Charlotte improved to 5-0.

In game one, the Rockets nearly rallied from a 5-1 deficit. After the 49ers scored four times in the top of the fifth, Toledo answered with three tallies of its own in the bottom of the frame. The first three hitters all reached, and Jillian Spink plated Melissa Rons and Kattie Palmer with a basehit up the middle. Then, with two outs, Mica Sanchez laced a single to center to bring home Sam Toy and make it 5-4.

However, the next seven Rocket hitters were retired in order, and Charlotte scored twice in the top of the seventh to earn some breathing room and the 7-4 victory.

Sanchez had her second multi-hit effort in as many days, while Erinn Wright also added an RBI single that accounted for Toledo's first run of the game. Rons had a hit and two runs scored batting in the ninth spot of the lineup.

In game two, the Rockets could not get their offense untracked, recording just three hits. Toledo cracked the scoring column first, with Sanchez ripping an RBI triple that scored Ashley Herr in the top half of the fourth.

Charlotte responded, though, with three unearned runs in the bottom of the inning and plated another run in the fifth to account for the final tally.

Senior Hannah Rockhold worked five innings and yielded just six hits and one earned run but was tagged with the loss.

Toledo plays one more time at the First Pitch Classic at 11 a.m. Sunday against the loser of tonight's Saint Francis (PA) and Stony Brook contest.

Contact: Scott Miles
scott.miles@utoledo.edu