Fifth Third Field - Toledo Mud Hens

Charlotte Knights (CHW) @ Toledo Mud Hens (DET)

June 26, 2025

Knights 12, Mud Hens 9

W: Mike Clevinger
L: Keider Montero

HR: Colson Montgomery 2 (CLT), Hao-Yu Lee (TOL), Brewer Hicklen (TOL)

Attendance: 4,736
Time of Game: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Toledo, OH
Opened: 2002
Capacity: 10,300
Level: Triple A
League: International

On Thursday, I made the short trip from Fort Wayne to Toledo, which took me back to the state of Ohio for the final leg of the Midwest trip.  After five straight Midwest League games, it was back to the AAA International League.  This was my second stop on the trip at a ballpark I had previously visited.  In this case though, I had only been to Fifth Third Field one prior time and it was at least a decade ago.  At the time, it was probably the nicest minor league park I had ever visited.  While that is no longer the case, this is still a very nice park that likely served as an inspiration for many of the newer parks built in the years since, particularly those situated in downtown locals like this one.  Toledo is the long time AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, a logical pairing since it is less than an hour drive between the two cities.

Fifth Third Field is located in Toledo's Warehouse District.  The brick exterior gives the park a classic feel which melds perfectly with the older brick buildings in the neighborhood.  Most vantage points from inside the stadium provide a nice view of the downtown skyline.  Pedestrians walking past the stadium in the outfield can peer inside to catch a glimpse of the game while in progress.  There are very few outfield seats, but a bunch of different picnic, party and special seating areas out there, including along Hessman Alley above the left field wall.  That is named after former Mud Hens slugger Mike Hessman, who is Minor League Baseball's all-time home run leader.  The lack of outfield seats is compensated by having a legit second deck above the concourse spanning most of foul territory, plus a suite level above that.  The Mud Hens team store rivals Durham's for having one of the most extensive product inventories I've seen.  Makes sense because this is another one of the flagship minor league franchises.  There was a decent sized crowd on hand for this Thursday night game, which was delayed about 20 minutes due to "weather in the area".  Perhaps there were a couple rain drops before the scheduled start, but this seemed to be an unnecessary delay.

For the second time this year, veteran Mike Clevinger got the start for Charlotte in a game I attended.  He was slightly more effective this time around, but still far from dominant.  Just like his start in Charlotte, Colson Montgomery was the star of the game for the Knights.  Montgomery has had well documented struggles in AAA for the past two seasons, but not when I've been in the house.  This was the second time I've seen him hit multiple home runs in a game.  This particular game started a week long hot streak for him which ultimately led to him making his major league debut about a week later.  He got the scoring started in this game by launching a breaking ball from Toledo starter Keider Montero out to deep right center for a homer.  The Knights really roughed up Montero in the third inning.  They started the frame with four straight singles.  Immediately after the Mud Hens went to the bullpen, Corey Julks delivered a two run single to make it a five spot for the inning, increasing the lead to 6-0.  Toledo got three of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning though.  Rehabbing Matt Vierling had a RBI single followed by a two run opposite field homer by Hao-Yu Lee.  The Mud Hens got within one in the sixth inning on a two run single by Gage Workman, against the organization he briefly played for earlier in the season.  Workman was an offseason Rule 5 pick by the Cubs, was traded to the White Sox before eventually being returned to his original organization of Detroit.  That hit made it 6-5 Charlotte.  That's as close as Toledo would get though as the Knights put up another five spot in the top of the seventh.  Charlotte had five hits in the inning including three doubles.  They sent 10 men to the plate in the frame while taking an 11-5 lead.  For the second time in the game, the Mud Hens answered a five run inning with three of their own in the bottom half.  This time, the runs were all scored on a three run bomb by Brewer Hicklen that banged off the video board.  It probably would have reached the street outside the stadium if the board wasn't there.  So that made it 11-8 Knights after seven.  Charlotte added one more in the eighth on Montgomery's second homer of the game, a lefty-on-lefty 417 foot blast to nearly dead center field.  That completed a 3 for 4 night with two homers, three RBI and four runs scored for Montgomery.  The Mud Hens tacked on a run in the bottom of the ninth, but that was not nearly enough as the Knights won this one by a final score of 12-9.

That made it three straight games on this trip in which the road team won by scoring double digit runs.  This was the most competitive game of the three though.  Following this game, I made the trek across Northern Ohio to Eastlake for one final Midwest League game on this trip.

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Next ballpark: Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, OH