Toledo Baseball Begins 2019 Season at Winthrop

Friday, February 15

Rock Hill, S.C.

4:00 p.m.

University of Toledo

Winthrop

Senior Brad Boss is one of the top returning hitters for the Rockets and will be the team's starting centerfielder in 2019.

2/14/2019 8:24:00 AM | Baseball

Game Notes (PDF)

Toledo, Ohio— The University of Toledo baseball team kicks off its 2019 season this weekend with a three-game series at Winthrop.

Live stats and audio links can be found below. First pitch for Friday's game is scheduled for 4:00 p.m., Saturday's game will begin at 3:00 p.m., and the series finale on Sunday will start at 1:00 p.m.. As always, follow along on Twitter at @ToledoBaseball for any and all updates.

Probable Starters
Friday: Live Stats | Audio | RHP Zach Peek vs. LHP Michael Jacob
Saturday: Live Stats | Audio | LHP Nate Pawelczyk vs. RHP Doug Smith
Sunday: Live Stats | Audio | LHP Thad Harris vs. RHP Layne Schnitz-Paxton

2018: Quick Recap
The Rockets finished the year with a record of 22-33 and a 14-13 mark in conference play, the most MAC wins since 2015. Toledo clinched its MAC Tournament spot on the final day of the regular season, securing the No. 5 seed. It marked the ninth time in 10 seasons that UT advanced to the MAC Tournament, making them one of three schools to make the tournament that many times over that span. Individually, former Rockets Ross Adolph and Sam Shutes earned All-MAC and ABCA All-Region honors, while Adolph was also rewarded with third-team All-American distinctions. John Servello was named MAC Freshman of the Year, the third player in team history to earn that award.

Rockets Picked Fifth in 2019 Preseason Poll
The preseason coaches' poll was released on Wednesday, and Toledo was picked to finish fifth. Reigning champion Kent State was picked to win the league once again and received eight first place votes)

1. Kent State – 98 points (8 first place votes)
2. Ball State – 88
3. Miami – 78 (1)
4. Central Michigan – 53
5. Toledo – 51
6. Ohio – 49
7. Eastern Michigan – 45
8. Western Michigan – 42
9. Northern Illinois – 29 (1)
10. Bowling Green -- 17

Rocket Notes

Toledo pitchers struck out a team-record 397 batters, and the Rocket batters walked a team-record 259 times last year. The walks record had stood since 1977.
Servello joined Mitch Maier (2001) and AJ Montoya (2015) as UT players to win MAC Freshman of the Year. He was also named to Collegiate Baseball's Freshman All-American team, the first Rocket to earn that distinction since Montoya. Servello hit .343 in 46 games last season, the highest batting average by a Rocket freshman since Mitch Maier in 2001 (.444).
Last season, the Rocket offense ranked first in the MAC in extra-base hits (153) and second in both batting average (.273) and slugging percentage (.412).
UT last faced Winthrop at the beginning of the 2015 season. Toledo took two out of three games from the Eagles that weekend.

Newcomers
Toledo has 12 newcomers on its roster for 2019. Junior Doug Smith joined the Rockets after two years at Cuyahoga Community College. Joining Smith are 11 freshmen: Frank Ciacchi, Darryn Davis, Jeff Dunsmore, Thomas Eitniear, Kyle Jones, Aric McAtee, Mark Mohnickey, Danny Murphy, Jamie Myers, Kurtis Rutschilling, and Ryan Thompson.

Scouting the Competition
Winthrop finished last season with a record of 25-31 and a 15-12 mark in Big South Conference play. The Eagles bring back two all-conference pitchers, Pawelczyk and Peek, and six starters in the field. Winthrop was picked to finish third in the Big South and received one first place vote in the league's preseason coaches' poll. As a team, the Eagles hit .257, fourth in the conference, and scored 265 runs, which put them seventh. On the mound, the team's 4.81 ERA was fourth in the Big South. Individually, Peek led the conference with 99 strikeouts.