WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Ohio State lost its second game of the season, 10-7, to Maine Saturday in Winter Haven, Fla. Coupled with a win earlier in the day over Northeastern, Ohio State is now 8-2 on the season. Maine evened its record at 5-5.

Against the Black Bears, Ohio State built a 4-1 lead behind a four-run third inning. Matt Streng had an RBI triple, Zach Hurley followed with an RBI double and Justin Miller contributed an RBI double for the big hits of the inning.

Another run in the fourth, on a Ryan Dew run-scoring single, extended the lead to 5-1.

But like its loss to Rhode Island on Friday, Ohio State could not hold onto the lead, or make enough a comeback later on to reclaim the lead. Maine took advantage of a walk and two hit batters to open its half of the fourth inning and when the damage was done, the Black Bears had scored seven runs – an one-inning season-high against Ohio State this year – off four hits to open up an 8-5 lead.

The Buckeyes could only manage a run in the fifth and another in the eighth, and Maine added two of its own in the eighth to make a winner out of starter Joe Miller (1-2), who went 6.0 innings. Alejandro Balsinde came on in the seventh inning and pitched 3.2 innings of effective relief to record his first save of the year.

Dean Wolosiansky (1-1) took the loss after giving up seven runs in 3.1 innings of work. Junior Theron Minium came on for “Wolo” in the fourth inning and pitched an effective 3.2 innings for his longest stint since the 2007 season (Theron red-shirted the 2008 campaign). He allowed only two runs while scattering five hits but, unfortunately on this day, Ohio State couldn’t come up with enough runs to support his effort. Jared Strayer came on and pitched the eighth.

Offensively, Michael Arp and Matt Streng had two hits and scored two runs while Justin Miller and Michael Stephens had a pair of hits each and an RBI apiece.

Stephens, who had five hits and five RBI in the two games Saturday, sparked the Buckeyes’ 11-8 win over Northeastern with three hits and four RBI. Arp also had three hits and two RBI and freshman Brad Hallberg had a couple of hits and two RBI as well.

Reliever Eric Best pitched 5.1 innings in relief against Northeastern to pick up his first win of the season against no defeats. 

Game Notes from Florida, Volume VIII...

• Maine has defeated the Buckeyes in the only two meetings on the diamond between the two teams. Last year, Maine won, 9-8, in Bradenton, Fla.
• Freshman Brad Hallberg experienced his first collegiate action, start –at designated hitter – and hit – an RBI single vs. Northeastern. He had two hits and two RBI in his debut performance. 
• Zach Hurley dove to make a diving catch in each of the two games Saturday. Michael Arp also made a diving catch, in the Maine game with Ohio State trailing 8-6. Arp’s and Hurley’s second web gem were back-to-back.
• A fifth-inning single against Maine extended Dan Burkhart’s hitting streak to all 10 games this season and to 13 going back to last year.
• Michael Stephens has an eight-game hitting streak.
• Sunday is get-away-day for the Buckeyes, but first the team will play Central Michigan in a 12:30 p.m. game at Chain of Lakes Field.  

####