Rockets Ready for Weekend Series at Northern Illinois

Friday, May 5

DeKalb, Ill.

4:00 p.m.

University of Toledo

Northern Illinois

Toledo will look to get back on track this weekend at Northern Illinois.

Rockets Ready for Weekend Series at Northern Illinois

5/4/2023 2:36:00 PM | Baseball

Toledo visits NIU for final road series of 2023

TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo baseball team heads to DeKalb this weekend for a three-game series against the Northern Illinois Huskies.

Friday's series opener will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET, Saturday's game is set for a 2:00 p.m. ET start, and the finale on Sunday will start at 1:00 p.m. ET.

Rewriting the Record Book
Over the last week-and-a-half, the Rockets have broken three significant team or individual school records, making this one of the most significant stretches of Toledo baseball from an accolades standpoint in quite some time:

Last week against Bowling Green, Mason Sykes hit his 36^th career home run to become Toledo's all-time home run leader. He passed Dan Sherwood (35 home runs, 2008-11) with his fourth-inning blast vs. the Falcons. Sykes' 36 career home runs are the most among all current MAC players.
In the previous game 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.
Williams has 39 stolen bases entering play this weekend, 11 away from tying the MAC's single-season stolen base record owned by Central Michigan's Larry Lamphere (50, 1988).
Toledo broke its single-season home run record 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 80 home runs on the year.
The Rockets rank 15^th in the country in home runs.
Jackson has 15 home runs this year, one away from tying Sykes' single-season school record of 16 home runs. Jackson is tied for second in the MAC in home runs.
One of the top fielding teams in the country, Toledo's .981 fielding percentage this year ranks 13^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 Northern Illinois
Northern Illinois enters the weekend with an 8-35 record and a 4-16 mark in league play. NIU will be looking to get back on track this weekend, having lost seven straight MAC games. The Huskies rank last in the MAC in runs scored and in ERA. Colin Summerhill (.309) is the lone player on the roster hitting above .300 and he also leads the team in home runs (nine) and RBIs (44).

Next Up
Toledo will play its final road game of the regular season next Tuesday at Oakland before returning home to host Central Michigan next weekend.