TOLEDO, OH - Toledo left eight runners on base and suffered a tough 3-1 setback to Northwestern Ohio on Wednesday at soggy Scott Park. With the non-conference loss, the Rockets fall to 20-21 on the season.
The Racers' Pichi Torres (2-0) kept UT hitters off-balance and never faced more than five batters in an inning to collect his second victory of the spring. Torres allowed one run on seven hits with five strikeouts in 6.0 innings.
Offensively, junior 3B Wes White (3-for-4) led the Midnight Blue & Gold with a game-high three hits and senior DH Matt Delewski (2-for-4) had a pair of hits in a losing effort. White has now recorded multi-hit efforts in each of his last four games played.
Unfortunately for the Rockets, they were unable to string hits together against a trio of UNOH hurlers, and as a result registered their lowest scoring output since the middle of March.
Junior RHP Jared Locke (3-5) was saddled with the loss, giving up three runs (one earned) on six hits with two punchouts in 5.2 frames. Locke cruised through the first 5.1 innings and yielded only two hits, before the Racers (30-18) tagged the Rockets' mid-week starter with the eventual game-winning tallies.
UT looked good early and opened the scoring with a RBI triple off the bat of freshman RF Dan Zuchowski in the third frame. The first-year Rocket ripped a Torres pitch into the gap in right-center field to score freshman SS Nate Langhals, who led off the frame with a single.
The Racers finally solved Locke in the game-changing fifth inning with a trio of two-out tallies to send the UT starter to the showers. UNOH effort was aided by two-out, run-scorng singles by Fabian Placencia, Kevin Cyrus and Dylan Brammer, as well as a critical UT error to take a 3-1 lead. It proved to be an advantage the visitors would not relinquish.
UNOH's Junior Santos came on in relief of Torres and worked 1.0 scorless frame, before Austin Park closed out the impressive road victory with 2.0 flawless innings to collect the save.
Dylan Brammer paced the Racers with a team-high two hits.
Despite the loss, the Rockets received solid relief pitching from freshman RHP Alec Schmenk, senior RHP Tyler Scott and junior RHP Cody Umbright. The trio yielded only two hits with a pair of punchouts over the final 3.1 frames.
Toledo will now turn its focus back to Mid-American Conference action when it hosts Ball State in a three-game series this weekend, April 27-29, at Scott Park. Friday's first pitch is slated for 3:05 p.m., while Saturday's and Sunday's games will start at 1:05 p.m.
