Hens fall 2-0 in series finale with Cubs

Pitching staff shines, but a lack of offense leaves Toledo short of win

By Tyson Bernath

April 13, 2025

TOLEDO, OH - The Toledo Mud Hens dropped their series finale against the Iowa Cubs 2-0 Sunday afternoon. While pitching remained resilient for Toledo, their struggles on offense left them scoreless. Looking to secure a series tie, the Mud Hens went with Lael Lockhart on the mound. The southpaw came

TOLEDO, OH - The Toledo Mud Hens dropped their series finale against the Iowa Cubs 2-0 Sunday afternoon. While pitching remained resilient for Toledo, their struggles on offense left them scoreless.

Looking to secure a series tie, the Mud Hens went with Lael Lockhart on the mound. The southpaw came into Sunday hoping to lower a 9.90 ERA through his first three starts. Lockhart would turn to his curveball early in the game, before abandoning it in favor of his slider through his later innings.

The early lead in this game belonged to the Iowa Cubs as they went up 1-0 in the third inning. Chase Strumpf and Ben Cowles teamed up to take the lead, both hitting a double. The Cubs continued to knock on the door when a rare Lockhart walk put runners on the corners. Lockhart, however, bested Iow with two quick outs to leave both base runners stranded.

Things were pretty uneventful for both teams from that point forward. Toledo struggled to find any hits aside from a Hao-Yu Lee single and a couple of doubles picked up by Riley Unroe and Bligh Madris.

The Cubs were having better luck than the Hens getting guys on base, but they struggled to bring in the baserunners. By the end of the game, Iowa would have nine runners left on base, a testament to the work of Tyler Owens and PJ Poulin who both made relief appearances for Toledo.

Going into the ninth, the Hens still trailed 1-0 as Poulin remained on the rubber to keep things within reach. Poulin’s sinker and slider had done numbers on the Cubs all day, but Christian Franklin got the best of Poulin with an RBI double to extend the Iowa lead to 2-0.

The Hens had their work cut out for them if they were going to attempt a rally in the bottom of the ninth, but hope quickly faded for the Toledo faithful as Jordan Wicks went one, two, three.

Toledo and Iowa will face off twelve more times this season with each team playing a series in front of their home crowd. Toledo will make a trip to Indianapolis this week for a six-game series with the Indians, beginning on Tuesday.

Notables:

Lael Lockhart (L, 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)
Tyler Owens (2.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K)
PJ Poulin (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K)