CLEARWATER, FL - A nine-run second inning sparked Toledo's softball team to a 12-8 victory in the second half of its doubleheader with Quinnipiac on Tuesday. The Rockets fell 2-1 in nine innings in the first game.
Following the split, the Rockets are 2-10, and will play another doubleheader on Wednesday at Jacksonville. First pitch is at 4 p.m., and live video streaming is available at the link above.
Five Rockets had multi-hit efforts in game two, as Toledo pounded out a total of 12 hits. Junior Kate Ricchio and freshman Ashley Herr both went 3-for-4, while senior Lacey LeVier and sophomores Jillian Spink and Brooke Gates had two hits apiece.
Trailing 3-0, Toledo loaded the bases with none out in the second, and freshman McKenna Smith reached on a fielder's choice to score Spink. Herr followed with a single to left-center that plated freshman Morgan Smith and sophomore Kattie Palmer, and Ricchio's single re-loaded the bases.
LeVier walked and Gates hit a sac fly to put the Rockets in front, 5-3. Later in the inning, Spink came up again and singled to right-center to score Ricchio, and Morgan Smith reached on an error to score LeVier.
The Rockets added another run in the fourth to make the score 10-3, as McKenna Smith singled with one out, and later came in to score on Ricchio's line drive single to left.
The Bobcats rallied and trimmed Toledo's lead to 10-6 after a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth. But the Rockets put the game away with two tallies in the bottom of the sixth, coming after the first two hitters were retired. Herr reached on a bunt single, and Ricchio and LeVier both singled to load the bases. Gates came up and hit a single to left, which scored Herr and Ricchio to make it a 12-6 game.
Shana Szypka earned her first victory of 2010 after working four innings of relief.
Toledo held an early lead in the first game of the doubleheader, as Morgan Smith homered to left with two outs to put the Rockets in front 1-0. Quinnipiac evened the score with a two-out RBI double in the bottom of the frame, and the Bobcats cracked through in extra innings with a sacrifice fly to end it.
Senior P Hannah Rockhold was the tough-luck loser for the Rockets, throwing 8.1 innings of three-hit ball while fanning three and allowing just one earned run.
Contact: Scott Miles
scott.miles@utoledo.edu
