NASHVILLE, Tenn.— The Toledo baseball team visited No. 6-ranked Vanderbilt on Wednesday evening and fell to the defending national champions by a score of 11-2.
Junior
Trace Hatfield went 2-for-5 at the plate and tallied the lone RBI for the Rockets. Freshman
Trey Wright did not record an official at-bat, reaching base in all four of his plate appearances (one walk, three HBP). Wright became the first Rocket since Dan Sherwood in the 2011 season to be hit by a pitch at least three times in one game.
Senior
Billy Todorowski threw a career-high four innings and struck out two against the Commodores on Wednesday. Senior
Nate Haugh, sophomore
Kyle Jones, freshman
Connor Brandon, and junior
Kyle Bischoff all saw time on the mound as well.
"That was a very good team with elite pitching," head coach
Rob Reinstetle said. "Every player on their staff was 90-95 and could pitch. We knew scoring would be hard since they came in with a 1.86 team ERA. That being said, we had some chances early to put some runs on the board and just couldn't get the big hit. Now we move on to Kennesaw State this weekend. We really need to play well down there and set us up for start of MAC play. We play a lot of close games and it's time to turn the corner as a group and start putting some wins in that column."
The last leg of Toledo's spring break trip will be this weekend at Kennesaw State.
How it Happened
- Toledo drew first blood with a run in the top of the first inning. After Juniors Chris Meyers and John Servello both walked, Hatfield dropped a bloop single into right field to give the Rockets a 1-0 lead.
- Vanderbilt wasn't down long; a double down the line in left field brought in the tying run in the bottom of the first.
- The Commodores took the lead with a run in the bottom of the second. A base hit up the middle made it 2-1.
- Two more runs for Vandy in the bottom of the fourth put Toledo in a 4-1 hole. And RBI double brought in the first run, then a rundown with runners at the corners allowed the runner at third to score.
- The biggest inning of the night for either team was the bottom of the fifth, where the Commodores scored four runs to take an 8-1 lead. The first three batters reached base, then the next four batters all drove in one run apiece to extend the Rockets' deficit to seven runs.
- Vanderbilt pushed across its ninth run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. A two-out base hit to right field scored a run and put the ledger at 9-1.
- Sophomore Ryan Thompson scored on a wild pitch in the top of the eighth to make it 9-2.
- A two-run single in the bottom of the eighth put the score at 11-2 and capped the scoring for Vanderbilt.