University of Toledo
Eastern Michigan
Toledo Storms Past Eastern Michigan in MAC Series Opener, 7-1
5/14/2015 4:10:00 PM | Baseball
YPSILANTI, MI – Toledo earned an impressive 7-1 victory over Eastern Michigan in Thursday's Mid-American Conference series opener at Oestrike Stadium. With the win, the Rockets improve to 23-30 overall, 15-10 in the league.
Senior RHP Cameron Palmer (6-7) was simply brilliant on the bump for UT to record the triumph, allowing only one unearned run on two hits with one walk and eight punchouts in 7.0 innings. Palmer kept the EMU (19-34, 8-17 MAC) hitters off-balance all evening and faced four-or-less batters in six of the frames to tally his team-high sixth win.
Senior RHP Alec Schmenk came on in relief and picked up where Palmer left off, yielding just one hit with two strikeouts over the final 2.0 frames to close out the road victory.
Offensively, the Midnight Blue & Gold did all their damage in the opening three innings to post the six-run triumph. The Rockets plated one run in the first, four in the second and two in the third to record their sixth win in their last seven games against Eastern Michigan on the road.
Freshman 2B Matt Hansen (3-for-4, RS, 2 RBI) paced the visitors with a game-high three hits, while the quartet of junior SS Deion Tansel (2-for-4, 2 RBI), junior CF John Martillotta (2-for-5, RBI), junior RF Ryan Callahan (2-for-4, 2 RS) and junior C Lucas Sokol (2-for-4, RS, RBI) had two hits each. All but two Toledo starters finished with at least one hit against EMU's Charlie Land (3-8).
Toledo took the lead for good in its opening at-bat on a RBI single off the bat of Martillotta.
The Rockets then blew the division showdown open an inning later on the strength of a pair of two-run singles by Hansen and Tansel to make the score 5-0.
UT then finished off its scoring in the third frame with a sacrifice fly from senior 3B Nate Langhals (0-for-2, RBI) and a run-scoring single by Sokol.
Eastern Michigan broke up the shutout with a run in the seventh inning, taking advantage of a UT throwing error, but that would be the only offense the home team could create.
The lone Eagles' to collect hits in tonight's series opener were CF Austin Wilson (1-for-3) in the third frame and RF Jordan Peterson (1-for-4, RS) in the seventh.
EMU's Land was saddled with the loss, giving up seven runs (all earned) on 13 hits with one free pass and five strikeouts in a complete-game effort.
The teams will continue their three-game series tomorrow with a 3:00 p.m. first pitch. Sophomore LHP Steven Calhoun is slated to get the start on the hill for the Rockets.
