TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo baseball team (20-28, 18-14 MAC) visits Northern Illinois (14-32, 13-19 MAC) for four games this weekend.

The series begins on Friday with a 3:00 p.m. ET game, which will be followed by a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET. Toledo and Northern Illinois will conclude their weekend with a 1:00 p.m. ET contest on Sunday.

Where They Stand
With just two weekends left in the regular season, Toledo finds itself in fourth place in the MAC with a record of 18-14. Ball State and Central Michigan are tied for first place with identical records of 23-9, and Western Michigan sits a game up on Toledo with a record of 19-13. The Rockets and Chippewas will end the season at Scott Park with a four-game series.

Last Time Out
Toledo visited Eastern Michigan on Tuesday evening, defeating the Eagles 16-10 to earn a series split.

The highlight of the night for Toledo was its 12-run third inning, during which 16 batters came to the plate and the first 10 hitters of the inning reached base safely.

Toledo has now scored 35 runs in its last two games, the most runs in a two-game stretch for the Rockets since 2010 when they scored 38 combined runs in back-to-back victories over Olivet College (27) and Cleveland State (11). UT pounded out 20 hits against the Eagles, the first time reaching that milestone since April 11, 2018 when the team collected 20 hits against Madonna University in a game played at Comerica Park. Seven Rockets had multi-hit efforts on Tuesday and five drove in at least two runs. Darryn Davis led the way with a career day, going 4-for-5 at the plate with two home runs, a double, and five RBIs, the first multi-homer game of his career.

Record Watch
Chris Meyers hit two home runs against Bowling Green over the weekend and now has 15 on the season, which ties the program's single-season home run record also held by Ross Adolph (2018) and Mike Ernst (2000).

The single-season home run mark isn't the only record Meyers is threatening to set over the coming weeks. The Miamisburg, Ohio native also has a shot at setting the single-season RBI record, which currently stands at 63 (Sean Dobson, 2004) as he enters this weekend with 53 runs batted in. He also has a chance to break the all-time program record for career walks, having accumulated 107 free passes in his career. That record is currently held by Brad Boss (115, 2016-19).

As a team, Toledo is on the verge of breaking the single-season home run record of 65 set in 2002, entering this weekend's series with 62 homers. The pitching staff is close to setting a new all-time strikeout record as well, with their current total of 351 punchouts just 47 away from breaking the record set in 2018 (397).

Rocket Notes

• Chris Meyers is currently ranked sixth in the nation in slugging percentage (.765) and tied for 16th with 15 homers. He leads the MAC in both of those categories as well as batting average (.386), on-base percentage (.510), hits (64), RBIs (53), and doubles (16) and he is tied for the lead in runs scored (48).
• The Rockets have hit 62 home runs as a team this season, far and away the most in the MAC. Toledo is on pace to set a new team single-season home run record; the current mark is 65, set in 2002.
• The 19 runs Toledo scored on Sunday were the most since another 19-run performance on April 16, 2019 against Oakland. The 17-run margin of victory was the largest for the Rockets since 27-8 win over Olivet College on April 6, 2010.
• As a team, Toledo has hit 47 home runs and is slugging .531 in conference play, both of which are tops in the MAC.
• Layne Schnitz-Paxton is 5-0 in conference play this year, the only undefeated pitcher with at least that many wins.
   

Scouting Northern Illinois
The Huskies are 14-32 this year with a 13-19 mark in conference play. Most recently they split a weekend series against Eastern Michigan, winning the final two games after dropping the first two. Kam Smith leads NIU at the plate with 10 home runs, second in the MAC, and he is hitting .345. As a team, NIU is hitting .269, middle-of-the-back in the MAC, and its team ERA of 6.58 is eighth in the league.