Toledo Welcomes Western Michigan to Scott Park This Weekend

Saturday, April 29

Toledo, Ohio

11:00 a.m.

University of Toledo

Western Michigan

The Rockets will host the Broncos for three critical MAC contests this weekend.

Toledo Welcomes Western Michigan to Scott Park This Weekend

4/27/2023 4:32:00 PM | Baseball

Rockets host Broncos in crucial MAC series

TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo baseball team is gearing up for a crucial Mid-American Conference series this weekend, a three-game set vs. Western Michigan at Scott Park.

First pitch for Friday's opener is set for 3:00 p.m. and the games on Saturday and Sunday are scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Friday and Sunday's games will be streamed live on ESPN+ and Saturday's game will be streamed live on ESPN3.

The Rockets (20-21, 8-10 MAC) and Broncos (13-24, 10-7 MAC) are sixth and fifth, respectively, in the MAC standings entering the weekend. The top four teams will advance to the MAC Tournament following the conclusion of the regular season.

Toledo has already notched a pair of victories this week, a 9-3 win at Dayton on Tuesday followed by a 12-7 victory vs. Bowling Green at home on Wednesday.

Rewriting the Record Book
A different school record has been broken in three of the last four games, making this one of the most significant stretches of Toledo baseball from an accolades standpoint in quite some time:

In Wednesday's win vs. Bowling Green, Mason Sykes hit his 36^th career home run to become Toledo's all-time career home run leader. He passed Dan Sherwood (35 home runs, 2008-11) with his fourth-inning blast vs. the Falcons.
In the previous game on Tuesday at Dayton, Jeron Williams tallied two stolen bases to break the single-season stolen base record. Williams recorded thefts number 36 and 37 to pass Tyler Grogg's previous school record of 36 stolen bases.
Toledo broke its single-season home run record last Saturday at Eastern Michigan when Owen Jackson clubbed the 66^th homer of the year. The previous single-season home run record was 65 by the 2002 squad, and UT now has 67 home runs on the year.
Jackson has 14 home runs this year, two away from tying Sykes' single-season school record of 16 home runs.
One of the top fielding teams in the country, Toledo's .980 fielding percentage this year ranks 12^th in the nation and would be the highest in a single season in school history.

Battle of I-75 at Fifth Third Field: Part III

For the third straight year, the Toledo and Bowling Green baseball programs will face off at Fifth Third Field in Downtown Toledo. The Rockets and Falcons will play at the home of the Toledo Mud Hens on Friday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m.

Toledo and BGSU have each won one meeting at Fifth Third Field. The Rockets won the first game, 5-2, in 2021 before the Falcons won, 5-4, in 2022.

This year's Battle of I-75 matchup will be the second game in a three-game Mid-American Conference series between the two rivals. Toledo and Bowling Green will open their series at Scott Park on Thursday, May 18 and conclude on Saturday, May 20.

Tickets are on sale now through the Toledo Mud Hens Ticket Office. Visit utrockets.com/FifthThirdField to purchase tickets.

About Western Michigan

Western Michigan enters play this weekend with a 13-24 overall record and a 10-7 ledger in MC play. WMU swept Bowling Green last weekend to move into fifth place in the conference standings. Will Morrison is the lone Bronco batting above .300 on the year (.308), while Cade Sullivan leads the team in home runs (11) and RBIs (37). Dane Armbrustmacher has struck out 68 batters in 56.2 innings and has at least eight punchouts in each of his last four starts.

Next Up

Toledo will visit Northern Illinois next weekend for a three-game series, its final MAC road series of the year.