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WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Zach Borenstein connected for a three-run homer and Eastern Illinois baseball rallied to tie the game twice in the late innings, but No. 27 Ohio State scored in the bottom of the eighth to defeat the Panthers, 7-6, Friday morning in spring break action at Chain of Lakes Stadium.
Eastern (3-14) concluded its annual spring break trip with a 2-5 record, dropping five straight after sweeping a doubleheader at South Florida on March 13. The Panthers are idle this weekend, returning to the Midwest for their homer opener on Tuesday, March 23 against Chicago State.
Eastern managed to score six runs on only six hits. Ohio State (10-4) scored seven times on its 13 hits.
With EIU trailing 5-3 in the top of the sixth,
Daniel Rowe tied the game with a two-out, two-run single. After OSU went ahead with a run in the bottom of the sixth, the Panthers manufactured a game-tying run in the eighth without a hit.
Cam Strang plated
Ben Thoma with a sacrifice fly.
But a leadoff single, a pair of wild pitches and a passed ball allowed the Buckeyes to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth.
Eastern went down 1-2-3 in the top of the ninth.
“The Akron loss (Wednesday), which was ugly, we quit as a team,” EIU head coach
Jim Schmitz said. “So that's what we challenged them with the last couple days. It's pretty rough losing, but everyone goes through it. The approach the last two days was better, we battled, and I was happy with that. But the way we lost the game with four wild pitches and passed balls, that's not college baseball. Our catchers have had their struggles. In a sense, we're handcuffed on decisions though because we don't have a lot of offense.
“The strength of the team is being able to hang in there but we've got to find a way to win. Some of the strides we made before spring break, we didn't make those same sorts of strides on this trip. Hopefully we can get back home and get back to the drawing board with a couple different things.”
In his second start of the season,
Mike Hoekstra gave up five runs on nine hits over four innings. Ohio State connected for a leadoff home run against him in each of the first two innings.
Matt Miller (0-4) worked three innings of relief, retiring the first five batters he faced. But the leadoff single and two wild pitches eventually cost him the game-deciding run in the eighth.
Brent McNeil worked an inning of scoreless relief, taking over for Hoekstra after OSU had gone ahead 5-3 in the fifth.
The Buckeyes' Eric Best (1-0) earned the win with 1 2/3 innings of hitless relief. Best took over for starter Brett McKinney with one out and two on in the eighth and allowed EIU to tie the game, but closed out the win with a perfect ninth.
Thoma was hit by a pitch and
Alex Gee and Rowe drew walks to load the bases in the eighth. Strang's fly ball to right field plated the game-tying run.
Shawn Ferguson and Thoma both singled in front of Rowe's game-tying hit in the sixth.
Strang and
Curt Restko were aboard when Borenstein connected for his second home run of the season, and sixth career, to right field in the third. The longball gave EIU a 3-2 lead.
Ohio State went back ahead with two runs in the fourth, recording four consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly.
The first pitch of Tuesday's home opener is slated for 3 p.m. at Coaches Stadium.
