TOLEDO, Ohio — The Toledo softball team registered a pair of walk-off wins on Saturday afternoon en route to a doubleheader sweep of Akron at Scott Park. The Rockets (30-22. 20-16 MAC) outlasted the Zips (8-45, 7-32 MAC) by a 3-2 margin in nine innings in the opener before pulling away for an 11-3 triumph in six innings in the nightcap.
"The extra-inning win in the opener was nice because we had opportunities all game and couldn't cash in," said Head Coach
Joe Abraham after the Rockets left nine runners on base. "It was good to see our pitching and defense hold it down for us. We've had a lot of extra-inning games, so we're not fazed at all by another one. We had two walk-offs in one day and you don't see that too often."
Senior
Erin Hunt (22-13) recorded both victories for Toledo by throwing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief and Game One and notching her 25
th complete game of the season in Game Two.
"Akron had baserunners on every inning of the second game, but Erin and our defense just came through," Abraham said.
Four different Rockets tallied three hits during the doubleheader sweep, including senior
Raelyn Nyren who blasted a three-run homer over left-field field fence to end Game Two. Joining Nyren with a trio of hits were freshman
Lauren Erickson, sophomore
Macey Moore and junior
Aubrey Reed.
Sophomore
Leah Munson delivered the game-winning hit in Game One before drawing three walks and registering a sacrifice fly in Game Two.
"We got some clutch hitting by a lot of people throughout the day and ending the second game on Raelyn's three-run bomb was fun," Abraham said.
Toledo and Akron will wrap up the four-game series as well as their 2021 campaigns tomorrow at noon. The Rockets will honor
Raquel Emery in their annual Senior Day ceremony prior to the contest.
GAME ONE
- Lauren Erickson scored the game's first run after doubling with one out in the second and then advancing to third on a passed ball and coming home on a wild pitch.
- The Zips answered right back in the third and evened the score on Atlantis Taufa's leadoff homer to left field.
- Jenna Kroll responded in the bottom of the third with another solo blast to put the Rockets ahead by a 2-1 margin.
- Akron tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth on an infield groundout.
- Toledo left two runners on base in each of the fifth and sixth innings to send the game to extra innings.
- After Aleah Marra doubled to left-center to open the ninth, Leah Munson singled to right to bring pinch-runner Arika Reed home with the winning run.
GAME TWO
- Toledo took control of the nightcap with a six-run second by taking advantage of a Zip error, passed ball and wild pitch.
- The Rockets tallied four hits in the inning with Aubrey Reed, Marra, Dayna Denner and Erickson collecting RBIs in the frame.
- Akron scored its first runs of the game on Macky Mitchener's two-run double to left field in the fifth, but Leah Munson's sacrifice fly kept the Rockets' lead at 7-2.
- After the Zips' Jaiden Bryant homered to lead off the sixth, Toledo responded with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to end the contest.
- Anna Dixon's single to left scored Moore in bottom of the sixth before Raelyn Nyren slugged a three-run homer to give the Rockets an 11-3 cushion.
