MUNCIE, Ind. – Toledo suffered a heartbreaking 5-4 setback in eight innings in its series finale at second-place Ball State on Sunday afternoon. The Rockets held a 4-3 lead in the seventh inning before the Cardinals (27-16, 21-6 MAC) tied it in the seventh and won it in the first extra frame to gain a split of the four-game weekend series.
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"We played a really competitive series against an excellent team," Head Coach
Joe Abraham said. "We won two games and had a good chance to win a third so it was a good weekend for us."
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Senior
Erin Hunt (16-12) took the loss for Toledo (22-19, 12-13 MAC) after throwing her 20
th complete game of the season. Ball State's Alyssa Rothwell (4-4) earned the victory after fanning eight batters in 4.2 innings of one-hit relief.
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 "Erin settled in after the first inning and threw really well," Abraham said. "We had no room for error once Rothwell came in because she just completely shut us down."
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Leading the Rockets offensively was freshman
Jenna Kroll, who tallied two of Toledo's five hits including a solo homer that gave UT a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning.
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Toledo will return to action on Tuesday, May 4 when it travels to Mt. Pleasant, Mich. to face Central Michigan in the first of two mid-week doubleheaders this week. The Rockets will also visit Western Michigan for another twin bill on Wednesday, May 5.
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HOW IT HAPPENED
- Toledo plated three runs in the opening frame with two of the runs coming on RBI singles from Macey Moore and Jenna Kroll.
- Ball State evened the score in the bottom of the first on Kayla Lissy's RBI triple, Amaia Daniel's RBI double and a Rocket error.
- Kroll's solo shot to right-center put the Rockets back on top in the fourth. Toledo let a chance to score more slip away when it loaded the bases with one out but came up empty.
- The Cardinals sent the game to extra innings on Daniel's one-out homer to left-center in the bottom of the seventh.
- Ball State's Faith Hensley's one-out single scored Kennedy Wynn with the winning run in the eighth inning.