AKRON, Ohio – The Zips left the bases loaded atop the ninth as Miami (Ohio) held onto a slim 3-2 lead over Akron to spoil senior day at Lee Jackson Field this afternoon.

Akron falls to 14-30 overall and 8-12 in the Mid-American Conference while Miami improves to 25-18 and 13-7 in conference action.

UA freshman Alex Loftin allowed three earned runs on six hits, recording five strikeouts to suffer today’s heartbreaking loss. Miami hurler Tyler Melling went eight innings and allowed just two earned runs on two hits, tallying three strikeouts on the day for the win. Jordan Jankowski allowed a hit and walked a pair of batters also adding a strikeout to his line for his fifth save of the season.

The Zips were held to just four hits today with junior Kevin Haas’ tallying the lone RBI of the day on his seventh home run of the season. Junior designated hitter Kyle Hallett tallied a pair of hits to lead the Zips, picking up his fourth double on the year.

The RedHawks struck first today, plating a run in the first inning courtesy of a RBI-single off the bat of first baseman Tommy Nurre as Miami took a 1-0 lead.

Akron responded immediately in the home half of the first with Haas’ solo shot knotting the game at one. Junior John Turk would walk and move to second on a successfully executed sacrifice bunt by senior Matt Roberts. Hallett’s single to left field would advance Turk to third before a wild pitch from Melling sailed to the backstop, allowing Turk to score to put the Zips ahead 2-1.

The RedHawks would not go quietly and retaliated by adding a run in both the second and third inning to take the 3-2 advantage.

After Loftin walked a batter and surrendered a single to open the top of the sixth, senior Tom Farmer was summoned from the UA bullpen and did an outstanding job. Farmer got the first batter to pop out to senior Ryan Frazee before striking out the next batter and inducing a groundout to end the inning without damage.

Farmer, who was perfect across four innings also struck out five batters and at one point retired eight batters consecutively.

Facing Jankowski in the ninth, Hallett smashed a one-out double down the right field line before junior Brian Kordal drew a walk to put runners on first and second. Following a UA strikeout, sophomore Brandon White also drew a walk to load the bases however, Jankowski would work out of the jam, striking out the next batter and inducing a groundout to end the inning as Akron stranded three of six batters on the day.

The Zips will look to respond in tomorrow’s rubber match against Miami which is slated for 1 pm. The game will be broadcast on the Akron ISP Network with Bill Morgan calling the action. Live stats will also be available on www.GoZips.com.