Ohio State Falls to UNLV in Series Finale, 7-4 – Ohio State Buckeyes

Sunday, April 12

Columbus, OH

Ohio State

23-9

UNLV

15-19

UNLV

Ohio State

Ohio State Falls to UNLV in Series Finale, 7-4 – Ohio State Buckeyes

4/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

April 12, 2015

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — A ninth-inning rally fell short as UNLV held on to defeat the Ohio State baseball team, 7-4, in the final contest of a three-game series Sunday afternoon at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium. Down three runs, the Buckeyes had the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, but failed to push them around home plate against UNLV closer Brayden Torres. With the loss, the Buckeyes fall to 23-9 overall, while the Rebels improve to 15-19.

“It was a costly lost today and we had an opportunity to put ourselves in good position this weekend and we lost ground on that,” head coach Greg Beals said. “UNLV pitched the ball pretty well against us, but I also think our hitters need to stay more offensive. They weren’t ready to hit the pitches they wanted to hit all the time. Give them credit. They got all seven runs with two outs against us today.”

The Buckeyes will now prepare to host No. 5 Louisville at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium. The contest will be broadcasted on BTN. Postgame fireworks will follow the game vs. the `Cards in Columbus. The team will then head for a key three-game series at Nebraska next weekend.

“I told the guys after the game in the outfield this is the point where we want to be in the season,” Beals said. “This is a great opportunity for us against Louisville and show that we are ready to play at the national level and we are going to get that chance for the rest of the season coming up.”

The first four frames went scoreless until the Rebels plated five runs — all with two outs — against Ohio State left-hander Ryan Riga. Payton Squier broke the zeros on the board when he sent a single to right field to plate two runs. Two more scored when a liner down the line went off the glove of a leaping Nick Sergakis. A hard slide at third base on throw back kicked out of the glove of Craig Nennig to allow the second run to score. A fourth hit vs. Riga then made it 5-1.

The Scarlet and Gray scored a run in the next two frames vs. Bohall. L Grant Davis doubled down the left field line and scored on a RBI groundout by Troy Montgomery in the fifth before Aaron Gretz singled through the right side in the sixth to push Pat Porter around.

But the Rebels extended their advantage to 7-2 in the top of the sixth on a two-run home run by Joey Armstrong, who sent a ball over the left field wall vs. OSU reliever Seth Kinker.

Ohio State cut its deficit to three runs when Gretz roped a liner into the gap in right center to score Sergakis and Porter, respectively, in the bottom of the eighth. But that’s all the home squad would get following a strikeout by UNLV lefty reliever Brayden Torres.

In the ninth, the Buckeyes tried to continue their recent late-inning magic with the bases loaded and one down vs. Torres. Ryan Leffel and Connor Sabanosh both singled before Porter worked a walk. However, Torres was able to strike out Ronnie Dawson and get Sergakis to pop-up to end the game.

Both teams left the bases loaded in the early innings. Ohio State stranded three in the bottom of the first when Bohall got Aaron Gretz to fly out to deep center, while the Rebels left them loaded when Sergakis snagged a liner down the line in the third.

Riga went three up and three down in the top of the fourth. Gretz knocked a two-out double vs. Bohall in the bottom half, but the Scarlet and Gray left him on second after Bohall tallied his fifth strikeout of the day on a called strike three.

Riga received the loss to fall to 5-2, throwing five innings and allowed five runs, three earned runs, three walks and four strikeouts. Bohall improves to 4-3 and limited the OSU bats to two runs on nine hits with a walk and five strikeouts in seven innings of work. Torres picked up his second save of 2015.

GAME NOTES · Ohio State falls to 2-3 against the Rebels all-time after the first three-game series between the two schools. · The Buckeyes drop their first series since falling at UAB Feb. 28. · Pat Porter extended his hit streak to 12-consecutive games, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. · Connor Sabanosh tallied his ninth multi-hit game of the season, while Davis notched his third of the year. Aaron Gretz went 3-for-4 with two doubles and tied his career-high with three RBI. · Seth Kinker pitched a season-high four innings vs. the Rebels.