TOLEDO, Ohio – The Toledo baseball team will begin its run at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Baseball Championships this week. As the No. 6 seed, the Rockets (25-30, 16-14 MAC) will face No. 3 seed Ball State (32-21-1, 18-12 MAC) in Game 1 in the double-elimination tournament on Wednesday, May 22 at 12:30 p.m. at Crushers Stadium in Avon, Ohio. Streaming for the full tournament will be available on ESPN+ and fans can purchase tickets through the MAC website to catch the action in Avon.
 
Watch | Live Stats | Tickets | Bracket
 
Toledo is making its second tournament appearance in three years, having gone 1-2 in 2022. The Rockets were swept by No. 1 seed Bowling Green last weekend, falling 3-1, 8-6 and 3-2 in its final regular-season series.
 
BSU won 2-of-3 games at No. 5 seed Kent State to finish the regular season, winning 11-9 and 11-1 in the first two games before a 7-2 defeat to close out the series.
 
The Rockets won the regular-season series with the Cardinals, taking two of three games on March 22-24 at Scott Park. Toledo last matched up with Ball State in the MAC Tournament on May 25, 2017, with the Rockets winning, 15-5.
 
TOLEDO'S MAC HITTING LEADERS

• Garret Pike topped the league in hits throughout the regular season with 80. He also finished tied for first in the MAC with 20 home runs, a Toledo single-season record.
• The junior and Anthony Wayne High School grad, Pike is second in total bases (150), fourth in runs scored (56) and slugging percentage (.691), fifth in OPS (1.112), sixth in average (.360), tied for eighth in RBIs (56), and tied for ninth in stolen bases (13).
• Owen Jackson enters tournament week tied atop the league in walks (42) and seventh in home runs (15).
• Luke Walton sits ninth in slugging percentage (.618), 10th in OPS (1.037) and tied for 10th in home runs (12).

TOLEDO'S MAC PITCHING LEADERS

• As a team, the Rockets are tied for first in the league with a 5.78 ERA and have the lowest opponent batting average at .272.
• Grant Umberger tops the MAC individually with a 3.82 ERA and has the second-lowest opponent batting average at .225.
• Umberger has allowed the third-fewest runs in the league (34) and sixth-fewest hits (59). He has struck out 75 batters, seventh-most in the conference and fanned 24 of those hitters looking, tied for sixth-most in the MAC.
• Noah Johnson has allowed just 20 walks, fourth-fewest in the league and amounting to just 2.72 walks per nine innings.
• Jacob Tabor's six saves enter the tournament tied for the league's most in the regular season.

ROCKET NOTES

• Toledo has a 5-11 overall record this year against teams that qualified for the MAC Championship. Toledo won two regular=season series against the five other teams in the tournament, including Ball State and Kent State.
• Jackson Bergman has given up three runs or fewer in each of his May starts, allowing just five runs total across 14.2 innings.
• Charlie Scholvin is coming off a 6-for-11 series (.545) against Bowling Green including a season- and career-high three hits in the series opener.
• The Rockets have hit 86 home runs as a team, second-most in the league and second-most in program history (98, 2023).
• Pike enters the game with hits in 13 of his last 14 contests. He has gone 23-for-55 (.418) in that span and delivered six multi-hit efforts.
• Caden Konczak enters the tournament hitting .381 from the leadoff spot in UT's 10 games played in May, with five multi-hit efforts in the month.
• Scott Mackiewicz reached 200 career games for Toledo over the weekend and has made 180 career starts, including 53 this season.

TOLEDO IN THE MAC AWARDS

• Garret Pike and Grant Umberger each earned First-Team All-MAC accolades, while Jacob Tabor was a Second-Team All-MAC selection. Pike also made the league's All-Defensive Team.
• Pike took a postseason league honor for the second year in a row, having received a second-team selection in 2023. Tabor and Umberger each took their first All-MAC selections in their first year in the conference.