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Matt LeLito vs. Youngstown State 3-24-26
Matt LeLito and his fellow seniors will play their final home series this weekend against Eastern Michigan.

Rockets Travel to Bowling Green on Tuesday, Host Weekend Home Series vs. Eastern Michigan

Toledo currently holds final MAC Tournament spot with three conference weekends to play

4/29/2024 12:36:00 PM

TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo baseball team will head down to Bowling Green for Battle of I-75 midweek action on Tuesday before heading home for its final home weekend series of the year, taking on Eastern Michigan in an important Mid-American Conference series May 3-5. All three games over the weekend will air on BCSN and ESPN+.
 
The Rockets (20-24, 13-11 MAC) dropped 2-of-3 to Ohio on the road last weekend, with OU winning the rubber match on Sunday.
 
Bowling Green (23-14, 18-3 MAC) fell in two of their three matchups to Kent State last week, but became the first team to clinch a spot in the MAC Tournament.
 
The Eagles (13-29, 8-13 MAC) were swept by Miami in Oxford last weekend and have lost 10 in a row overall.
 
Toledo sits sixth in the MAC standings, 2.5 games ahead of Northern Illinois (9-12) for the final tournament spot. Eastern Michigan is currently 3.5 games out of tournament position.
 
UT will honor 12 graduating baseball seniors on Saturday – Scott Mackiewicz, Owen Jackson, Grant Umberger, Camryn Szynski, Matt LeLito, Patrick Dillon, Christian Lothes, Jack Walker, Kyle Music, Trey Wright, Noah Johnson and Kyle Pijaszek.
 
LAST WEEKEND
Toledo dropped two of three games at Ohio last weekend. In the opener on Friday, the Rockets scored two runs in the first but only managed one hit for the rest of the game, as Ohio took the lead for good in the sixth in a 6-3 final.
 
The Rockets' bats exploded for 16 runs, capped by a seven-run eighth inning in a 16-2 victory on Saturday. All nine starters provided at least one hit on the afternoon. Noah Johnson delivered 6.0 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits for his third victory of the year.
 
Ohio won the series finale, 5-3, building up a 5-1 lead through seven innings. Toledo's late rally was shut down with the go-ahead run at the plate in the ninth. Owen Jackson hit two solo home runs, his fourth multi-home run game this season.
 
TOLEDO'S MAC HITTING LEADERS
  • Toledo leads the MAC in home runs with 70, which is tied for 37th in Division I.
  • Garret Pike is third in the league with 15 home runs, Owen Jackson is seventh with 13 and Luke Walton is tied for 10th with 10. Toledo remains the only team in the conference with at least three of the top 10 home run hitters.
  • Walton ranks second in the league in slugging percentage (.674) and fifth in OPS (1.110). Pike is ninth in both slugging (.644) and OPS (1.059).
  • Pike heads into the week top 10 in four other categories – second in hits (62) and total bases (116), fourth in runs scored (44) and tied for ninth in RBIs (43).
  • Walton's 13 doubles are tied for third-most in the league.
  • Jackson has drawn 32 walks, third-most in the MAC this season. 
TOLEDO'S MAC PITCHING LEADERS
  • Toledo holds the lowest ERA in the MAC at 6.00 and the lowest opposing batting average at .278.
  • The Rockets also rank second in team saves (15) and team strikeouts (387).
  • Grant Umberger enters the weekend with the third-lowest opposing batting average (.229) and the fourth-lowest earned-run average (3.81) in the MAC.
  • He has struck out 57 batters and 19 batters looking, both ninth-most in the conference.
  • Rockets pitching has limited extra-base hits this season, with Umberger allowing just six doubles, tied for thir- fewest in the league and Johnson allowing just six home runs, tied for ninth fewest.
  • Johnson has allowed the seventh-fewest walks in the league with 17, averaging just 2.9 per nine innings.
  • Jacob Tabor leads the league with six saves while Camryn Szynski ranks tied for third with four saves.
ROCKET NOTES
  • Jackson reached base in eight of his 13 plate appearances against Ohio and improved his on-base percentage to .439 this season. The Kankakee, Ill. has drawn nine walks in his past six games.
  • The bullpen pitched 20.1 innings across four games last week, allowing just three earned runs, 13 hits and recording 18 strikeouts.
  • Pike has at least one hit in 22 of Toledo's 24 conference games, including 11 multi-hit games.
  • Trey Wright has reached base safely in 31 of his 32 games played this year.
  • Umberger has pitched 5.2 innings or more in his last five starts.
SCOUTING THE EAGLES
  • Eastern Michigan is 7-20 away from home this season, including 3-6 in MAC games.
  • EMU is hitting .300 this season, the third-highest average in the MAC.
  • The Eagles are led at the plate by Giano Zuccaro with an average of .364, fifth-best in the MAC. Zuccaro has collected 52 hits this season with 15 multi-hit games.
  • Bobby Jones and Nick Chittum rank first and second in the MAC in innings pitched, logging 65.0 and 64.2, respectively.
  • Drew Beckner's 46 hits allowed tie for sixth-fewest in the league.
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