AKRON, Ohio – The Toledo softball team held a lead in both games of its doubleheader with Akron on Sunday, but ended up dropping both contests to the Zips. Toledo fell 6-5 in the opener and followed that up with an 11-8 defeat in game two.

Game one was tied 1-1 into the third inning when sophomore Lauren Erickson smacked one out of the park for her first collegiate grand slam to give the Rockets a 5-1 lead. But Akron hit a solo homer in the bottom half of the third and scored three more runs in the sixth to take a 6-5 lead, which would hold as the final score.

Senior Anna Dixon led off game two with a double and later scored on senior Dayna Denner's 24th career home run to give the Rockets an early lead. Two batters later, Erickson doubled to right field to bring around one more run for UT and make the score 3-0 before Akron had stepped to the plate. The Zips answered with a two-run homer in the first, tied the game 4-4 in the third, and continued to pile it on in the fourth and fifth innings. The Rockets continued to battle, scoring one in the sixth and three more runs in the seventh to close the gap 11-8, but couldn't complete the comeback. 

 Denner's first-inning homer in game two tied the program record for career home runs with Kaitlyn Bergman (2015-19) at 24.

Toledo and Akron will have one more game tomorrow, April 11 at noon at Lee R. Jackson Softball Field.

How it happened
GAME 1 – Akron 6, Toledo 5

• Freshman Emma Morgan took third on a wild pitch and later scored on sophomore Jenna Kroll's ground ball to shortstop to put Toledo ahead 1-0 in the first.
• In the bottom of the first, Akron's Jaiden Bryant tied the game at 1-1 on a sac fly to right field.
• In the top of the third, sophomore Lauren Erickson's  grand slam put the Rockets up 5-1.
• Akron's Bryant hit a solo home run in the third to make it 5-2.
• In the sixth, the Zips scored on an RBI double, followed by an RBI single, and then took the lead when Megan Cotton hit a two-run homer to left field.
• The Rockets went down in order in the top of the seventh to end game one on the wrong end of a 6-5 decision.

GAME 2 – Akron 11, Toledo 8

• In the top of the first,senior Dayna Denner hit a two-run homer to get Toledo on the board. Erickson followed that up with an RBI double to put the Rockets ahead 3-0.
• Akron's Bryant once again hit a first-inning home run; this time it was a two-run shot that trimmed Toledo's lead to 3-2.
• Freshman Maris Barbato led off the top of the second with a double and later scored on an Akron error to push the Rockets' lead back to two, 4-2.
• In the bottom of the third, Akron tied the game at 4-4 on a two-run double by Alexi Campbell.
• Akron's Bryant hit her third homer of the day in the bottom of the fourth to put the Zips ahead by two runs, 6-4. Campbell hit an RBI double and Cotton drove in another run with an RBI single to make it 8-4.
• The Zips added three more runs in the fifth to extend their lead to 11-4.
• In the top of the sixth, freshman Sidney Griffith scored on sophomore Madison Mikulski's infield single to cut the deficit to six.
• The Rockets fought until the very end, scoring three runs in the top of the seventh. Erickson drove in a run with an RBI single, then sophomore Arika Reed scored on a sac fly. Kroll scored one play later on a throwing error by the second baseman with two outs to close the gap to three, 11-8, but the rally would stop there.