Tallahassee, FL – The Rockets dropped a midweek contest with Florida A&M, 12-4, at Moore-Kittles field on Tuesday, March 8.  With the loss, Toledo drops to 1-10-1 on the season.

"We found ourselves behind early but I thought we generated some opportunities," head coach Cory Mee said. "We had guys in scoring position in six-out-of-nine innings but we weren't able to come up with a big hit or able to string hits together."

Sophomore Alex Wagner picked up the loss after throwing 2.1 innings and allowing six earned runs. Five Rockets — Freshman Jake Stout, freshman Luke Schaefer, sophomore Josh Cales, freshman Parker Ruffer, and sophomore Kyle Rago — all pitched in relief for UT.  Cales and Rago did not allow a run to score.

Leading the way offensively was sophomore DH Brad Boss, who went 1-for-3 with a triple and one RBI.   Freshman Riley Campbell also picked up two hits off the bench, including one double and two runs scored.

"Riley is a real spark-plug for our team," Mee said. "He plays the game with a lot of energy and it was good to see him come off the bench and give us a couple of quality at-bats."

Florida A&M jumped on the scoreboard early with a leadoff home run from Marlon Gibbs in the bottom of the first.  Wagner would retire the next three batters to keep the score 1-0.

Sophomore 1B Dalton Bollinger reached after being hit by the pitch and made it to third on a beautiful hit-and-run hit by senior 3B Dan Zuchowski.  Junior RF Jake Krupar brought Bollinger home on a fielder's choice to tie the game at one.

Alex Wong and Ben Ellzey extended the FAMU lead in the third with back-to-back doubles that each scored a run.  Dylan Dillard hit a two-run home run to extend the Rattlers lead to 5-1. Shane Gordon also hit an RBI single for the Rattlers to extend the lead to five.  Shane Gordon ripped a two RBI single to cap the seven-run inning for Florida A&M and make the game 8-1.

FAMU brought home a run in the fifth with a bases-loaded walk.

Dylan Dillard hit his second two-run home run of the night in the bottom of the sixth to extend the lead to 11-1.

Toledo got one back on a sophomore DH Brad Boss triple that scored senior PH Cory Finkler to make the score 11-2.  Finkler reached on a walk. 

The Rattlers extended the lead back to 10 on a wild pitch from Ruffer.

UT cut the lead back to 12-3 in the eighth inning as Campbell scored when the FAMU shortstop dropped the potential third out. The Midnight Blue & Gold cut the lead in the ninth when Bollinger ripped a RBI single to left field to bring home Campbell who previously reached on a double for the final score of the game.

The Rockets are back in action tomorrow against No. 15 Florida State at 6:00 p.m. at Dick Howser Stadium.