Box Score

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV baseball team (6-7 overall) suffered a 20-3 setback to the Ohio State Buckeyes (7-5-1) at Earl E. Wilson Stadium Saturday afternoon. The Buckeyes broke open a one-run contest â€" 2-1 through two innings â€" with five runs in the third and six more in the fourth en route to their 17-run margin of victory.

The win knots the series at 1-all with two games left between UNLV and OSU. Sunday's affair is scheduled to start at 1:05 pm with the Rebels sending Kenny Oakley (1-2, 4.76 ERA) to the mound against the Buckeyes' John Havird (0-1, 4.86 ERA). The series concludes Tuesday (6:05 pm), which has been billed as $2 Tuesday with $2 tickets, $2 hot dogs and $2 off beer.

OSU got the game started quickly with back-to-back hits that produced one run, while a throwing error that followed the second base knock allowed the other score. Troy Montgomery, who led his squad with four hits and four runs, led off the affair with a single up the middle. Brady Cherry followed with an RBI triple to right-center field. Cherry was awarded home when the relay throw to third base went astray and bounded out of play.

UNLV answered back an inning later when A.J. VanMeetren and Nick Ames culled together a pair of singles for a run. The former got the second started with a single to center and then moved into scoring position off a groundout. After the second out had been recorded via strikeout, Ames drilled a run-scoring single up the middle to cut the Rebel deficit in half, 2-1.

Unfortunately, the game got away from the Rebels in the third when the Buckeyes scored five times off of six hits and sent 11 batters to the plate. They loaded the bases with three straight singles before a pair of doubles began to produce runs. In addition to the three runs off those extra-base hits, OSU scored twice more off a single and a sacrifice fly.

"We just had too much to overcome early," said head coach Stan Stolte. "We ran through some arms in our last four days and they got into our bullpen early, and when you add six errors to the mix, that's what happens. It was disappointing to see guys that were given a chance off the bench perform the way they did. We expect our guys to play the same way regardless of the score, and I didn't see that today.

Kyle Isbel manufactured the Rebels second run of the game when he connected for a one-out double in the third. Isbel made his way to third and home with the help of two wild pitches.

OSU upped its lead from five runs, 7-2, to 15 frame-by-frame with the six-run fourth, single tallies in the fifth and sixth and a four spot in the seventh. The squad from Columbus tacked on a final run in the ninth.

The Rebels scored their third and final time in the eighth off an RBI single by Keyon Allen that plated Austin Anderson from second base after his double to right field.

In all, OSU had seven different players record multiple-hit efforts. In addition to Montgomery's four hits, Brady Cherry, Nick Sergakis, Tre' Gantt and Troy Kuhn had three each. Montgomery also paced the squad in runs with four, while Cherry was tops in RBI with four.

The Buckeyes' Adam Niemeyer (1-1) notched his first win of the season in six innings of work. Niemeyer allowed two runs off of four hits, but struck out seven against one walk. He watched a trio of relievers finish the contest, as each threw one inning and combined to surrender only one run off of three hits. They struck out four and walked one.

UNLV's Dean Kremer (0-2) was saddled with the loss after pitching into the third inning. The Buckeyes roughed Kremer up for seven runs off of nine hits in two frames.

The Rebel bullpen finished the final seven innings of the game. Cody Roper and Christian Myers went one each, while Tevita Gerber and Chase Maddux threw three and two stanzas, respectively.

NOTES: Squier extended his reached-base streak to 11 games with a sixth-inning walk, but his 10-game hitting streak came to an end.