CLEVELAND, OH - Toledo's softball team capped recorded its first doubleheader sweep in five weeks, taking a pair of victories at defending Horizon League champion Cleveland State (4-0 and 4-3) on Wednesday at Viking Field.

With the wins, the Rockets improved to 11-32, while CSU dropped to 36-13.

In the first game, MAC West Player of the Week Mica Sanchez blasted her fourth homer in five games as she launched a one-out shot to left center in the second to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead. UT then loaded the bases with one out in the third inning, and Erinn Wright delivered with a single to center that scored Kattie Palmer. A wild pitch then allowed Kate Ricchio to score and put Toledo in front 3-0.

Then, with two down and nobody on in the fifth, McKenna Smith - who entered the game as a pinch runner for Wright in the third - cranked her second home run of the season on a shot to center for the 4-0 score.

The production was more than enough for Hannah Rockhold, who scattered four hits in her seven innings of work. She held the Vikings without a hit through the first 3.2 innings and worked out a pair of jams in the fourth and fifth innings.

With two outs and no one on in the fourth, CSU's Amy Powell doubled. A dropped foul ball pop up extended Gabby Gillian's at bat, and she responded with a single to put runners on the corners. But Rockhold got a strikeout to end it and keep the Vikings off the scoreboard.

The Vikings also threatened with two outs in the fifth, as a single and a stolen base put a runner in scoring position, but once again Rockhold was able to end the frame with a punchout.

Lindsey Tobias had two of UT's seven hits in the first contest, while Rockhold threw her second complete game shutout of the season (Robert Morris, March 20).

In game two, CSU matched its hit output from game one in the first inning alone, as the Vikings scored twice on four hits and capitalized on a Toledo error. But the Rockets came right back and cut the deficit in half in the top of the second. Sanchez reached on an infield single, advanced to second on a groundout, and came in to score when Tobias slapped a single into center.

Toledo took the lead in the top of the fourth, as Jillian Spink hit a leadoff single to left, and Sanchez laced a triple to right center to bring her in. Sanchez herself scored on Smith's infield hit to put UT in front 3-2.

The Vikings evened the score at three with an RBI basehit in the fifth, but the duo of Spink and Sanchez answered again in the sixth. Spink started the frame with a double, and Sanchez doubled her home to make it 4-3.

There were some dramatics in the seventh, as CSU put two runners on with two out against Rocket starter Whitney Young, but the junior worked out of trouble by ending it on a grounder right back to the mound.

Young went the distance and, despite allowing 15 hits, limited the Vikings to just one earned run. She stranded 12 runners on base and finished off the first complete game of her career.

The Rockets finished with 10 hits themselves, led by Sanchez's 3-for-3 effort and two hits apiece from Spink and Wright. Sanchez in particular has been torrid of late, batting .500 (11-for-22) with four homers, nine RBI, nine runs and a remarkable 1.318 slugging percentage in the last eight games.

Cleveland State's Amanda Macenko, who entered the doubleheader with a 30-11 record on the mound this year and with 110 career victories to her name (25th most in NCAA history), was tagged with both losses.

The Rockets return to MAC action this weekend with a doubleheader at Ohio on Friday and single contests at Akron on Saturday and Sunday.

Contact: Scott Miles
scott.miles@utoledo.edu