TOLEDO, OH - A seventh inning rally came up just short as Toledo's softball team dropped a 4-3 decision to MAC West Division foe Western Michigan on Saturday at Scott Park.
The Rockets entered the bottom of the seventh trailing 4-2 and had the tying run at second base with nobody out, but couldn't come up with one more clutch hit in falling to 8-28 (2-7 MAC).
Hannah Rockhold threw her third complete game in two days, allowing six hits and four runs while striking out five. Kate Ricchio had her second-straight two-hit day while also launching her first home run of the season to pace the offense.
The Rockets struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning. Ricchio singled to center and Sam Toy reached on a fielder's choice. After a passed ball advanced both runners, Erinn Wright singled to bring Ricchio home and extend her hitting streak to a season-best six games. However, the next three hitters were retired, stranding two runners on base.
Western Michigan surged back with two tallies of its own in the next half inning. A walk, a single and a double accounted for the Broncos' runs in the second.
Their lead, though, was short-lived, as Toledo knotted the score in the third. Ricchio led off the frame with her solo, no-doubt-about-it blast to left center. It was her first home run since March 27, 2009 in the first game of a doubleheader against Morehead State, and it snapped a seven-game homerless drought for the Rockets.
The score remained tied at two through the top of the sixth, when WMU reclaimed the lead on a two-out RBI double. The Broncos tacked on another run in the seventh, though Rockhold avoided further damage by leaving the bases loaded.
UT struck quickly in its half of the seventh with the bottom third of its lineup. Mica Sanchez led off with a triple into the gap in right center, and Audrey Harner followed by smoking a double into left center to bring the Rockets to within 4-3. However, Harner was erased on a fielder's choice, and another fielder's choice out and a groundout ended Toledo's comeback.
Toledo plays its final home contest of the 2010 season at 1 p.m. Sunday against Western Michigan. Seniors Lacey LeVier, Rockhold and Sanchez will be honored before the game. The trio's pink jerseys, worn today as part of UT's Breast Cancer Awareness Day, will also be auctioned off after the game.
NOTES: Four of Toledo's six hits were for extra bases (two doubles, one triple, one home run). It was the most extra base hits in one game for UT since March 14 against South Florida, when the Rockets tallied five...The Rockets did not draw a walk in today's contest. It was the first time in their last 22 contests they failed to draw a base on balls...UT is now 3-6 in one-run games...Erinn Wright's six-game hitting streak matches Lacey LeVier's for the third-longest on the season. Only Brooke Gates (11) and Kate Ricchio (10) had longer streaks.
Contact: Scott Miles
scott.miles@utoledo.edu
