BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— The Toledo baseball team started its spring break trip with a 13-4 win at UAB on Friday evening.

The Rockets pounded out 17 hits against the Blazers, the biggest hit coming off the bat of junior Chris Meyers. His grand slam in the top of the sixth broke the game open for Toledo.

Meyers drove in a career-high five runs on Friday. Junior Danny O'Reilly added three RBIs and scored twice while going 2-for-4 at the plate. Sophomore Darryn Davis extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a 3-for-4 performance. Both he and classmate Ryan Thompson tallied two RBIs apiece against the Blazers. Four others had multi-hit performances: freshman Trey Wright, sophomores John Servello and Trace Hatfield, and junior Lorenzo DeBrecht. Senior Michael Ryan, who had been sidelined with an injury since opening weekend, went 1-for-3 with an RBI double.

Senior Layne Schnitz-Paxton turned in six solid innings on the mound, and sophomore Jamie Myers was outstanding out of the bullpen. Myers struck out five in his three scoreless innings of work.

"I'm super proud of these guys," head coach Rob Reinstetle said. "It was a team win; so many different players contributed. Tonight was the first time all season where we played a complete game for nine innings. Layne [Schnitz-Paxton] battled on the mound and gave us a quality start. Jamie Myers was outstanding coming out of the pen and finished the game for us. Offensively, we swung the bats really well tonight. Darryn Davis continued to swing it well and Chris Meyers had a huge grand slam to give us a nice cushion. All the hitters did a fantastic job of competing and had a hand in our success. Tomorrow is a new day and we need come out with that same focus and play another solid ballgame."

Toledo and UAB continue their weekend series with a 2:00 p.m. ET matchup on Saturday.

How it Happened

• The Blazers struck first, scoring a run in the bottom of the first to take an early lead. UAB's leadoff hitter singled to lead off the inning and later came around to score on a line drive into left field.
• After making an excellent diving catch in the bottom of the first, O'Reilly came through at the plate with a two-run single in the top of the second. Hatfield and DeBrecht led off the inning with back-to-back singles then later scored on O'Reilly's base hit, putting the Rockets up 2-1.
• Davis made it 3-1 later in the inning with a two-out infield single, driving in O'Reilly to push Toledo's lead to two runs.
• The Blazers scored three in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-3 lead.
• Down to his last strike in the top of the fifth, Thompson ripped a two-out double to left field and put the Rockets back on top by a score of 5-4. Davis was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Servello reached on an infield single; both scored on Thompson's two-bagger.
• Meyers broke the game open in the top of the sixth with a grand slam, his fourth home run of the year, to make it 9-4. With two outs and the bases loaded, Meyers drove the first pitch he saw over the fence in right field.
• Myers was outstanding out of the bullpen, throwing scoreless innings in the seventh, eighth, and ninth.
• The Rockets added four runs in the top of the ninth, the cherries on top of a 13-4 win over UAB. O'Reilly, Ryan, Davis, and Meyers drove in runs on four consecutive at-bats.

 
 
Junior first baseman Chris Meyers