AVON, Ohio — The No. 6 seed Toledo baseball team is on the brink of elimination at the Mid-American Conference tournament as the Rockets were outhit 13-1 and fell by a final of 5-1 to Ball State in their first game at Crushers Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
Ball State pitcher Merritt Beeker pitched a complete game for the win. He gave up just the one run on one hit and struck out 12 Toledo batters.
The Rockets’ Grant Umberger suffered the loss.
(Video credit: Mid-American Conference)
The Cardinals went ahead 2-0 with single runs in the bottoms of the first and second innings. Blake Bevis had the RBI single in the home half of the first that scored Decker Scheffler, then Houston King’s single and the help of a Toledo error allowed Michael Hallquist to come home in the second.
UT was able to manufacture a run in the fifth. Consecutive walks, a sacrifice bunt, and an RBI groundout off the bat of JP Wagner scored Trey Wright to get the Rockets on the board.
Ball State put the Rockets away with a three-spot in the seventh. The Cardinals made it 3-1 on a leadoff home run by Hallquist.
Later in the inning, with a pair of runners in scoring position, Clay Jacobs singled through the right side, good enough to score Bevis and make it a 4-1 margin. Grant Miller, who moved up to third on Jacobs’ hit, was sent home on a balk call during Matthew Gonzalez’s at-bat.
Scheffler finished 3 for 5 with a run scored for the Cardinals, Hallquist (2 for 5) drove in a run and scored two more, and King (2 for 3) had an RBI.
Toledo (25-31) now faces an elimination game Thursday morning at 10 a.m. against either No. 4 seed Miami (OH) or No. 5 seed Kent State at Crushers Stadium.
Ball State (33-21-1) will take on top-seeded Bowling Green at approximately 2 p.m. on Thursday.
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