No. 2 Seed Toledo Sustains Opening-Round Setback to No. 7 Seed Miami, 5-0
AVON, OH - No. 2 seed Toledo sustained a 5-0 setback to No. 7 seed Miami in the opening round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament on Wednesday at All Pro Freight Stadium. With the loss, the 2012 MAC West Division champion Rockets (30-26) will play No. 3 seed Central Michigan tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. in an elimination game. The Chippewas dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 6 seed Eastern Michigan earlier this afternoon.
The RedHawks' Shawn Marquardt (7-5) stymied the UT offense all afternoon, allowing just five hits with no walks and two strikeouts in a complete-game effort. Marquardt retired Toledo in order on four occasions and the most batters he faced in an inning was five in the second. Marquardt's shutout triumph helped Miami defeat UT for the second consecutive season in the opening game of the postseason tourney.
Senior 2B Joe Corfman (2-for-3) was the only Toledo player to tally a multi-hit effort in a matchup that lasted a little over two hours. Corfman is now hitting a sizzling .412 (14-for-34) in 10 career games in the MAC tourney.
Senior 1B Mark Lapikas (1-for-3), senior DH Matt Delewski (1-for-3) and freshman SS Nate Langhals (1-for-3) collected the Midnight Blue & Gold's other hits against the Miami southpaw.
Sophomore LHP Ryan Wilkinson (7-4) was saddled with the loss on the hill, giving up five runs (four earned) on 10 hits with two strikeouts in 6.1 innings.
Junior RHP Cody Umbright came on in relief of Wilkinson and did his best to give the 2012 MAC West Division champs a fighting chance to the bitter end, yielding only one hit over the final 2.2 frames.
The RedHawks (29-27) jumped all over Wilkinson in their first at-bat, scoring two runs on the strength of three hits. The visitors sent six batters to the plate and took advantage of RBI by Kevin Bower and Bryce Redecker to assume a lead they would not relinquish.
In the bottom of the first frame, Corfman doubled down the left-field line to take over sole possession of first place in school history with 54 career two-base hits. Unfortunately for the Rockets, the two-time first-team All-MAC honoree was stranded there as Miami's Marquadt retired the next three batters.
The RedHawks threatened to break the game open in the second inning, putting runners at the corners with one out, before UT's Wilkinson recorded a strikeout and a ground out to keep it a two-run game.
Toledo was also presented with a golden opportunity to score in the bottom of the second, having a runner on third base with only one out. Miami's Marquardt buckled down, though, and retired the ensuing two batters to deny UT any runs.
The score remained the same until the sixth frame when Miami plated a pair of tallies to make the difference 4-0. The RedHawks pounded out four singles in the at-bat and benefitted from a sacrifice fly off the bat of Max Andresen and a run-scoring single by Ryan Curl.
Miami then finished off its scoring an inning later with one run to chase Toledo's Wilkinson. The RedHawks took advantage of a hit by pitch, a walk and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Scott Slappey to build a 5-0 cushion.
MU was paced by Dan Walsh's three hits and Bower also finished with a multi-hit tally in a winning effort.
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