Niles, Ohio --  The Ohio Bobcats broke open a close game with nine runs in a three-inning span to beat Youngstown State 14-6 on Wednesday afternoon at Eastwood Field.

Five of the Bobcats' runs were unearned, including all four runs in the third that gave them a 6-2 lead. Ohio finished with 20 hits, 19 of which were singles.

Senior Erich Diedrich hit his first home run of the season and the 24th of his career. He now occupies second place by himself on YSU's all-time leaders list and needs two more to catch Adam Cox.

Sophomore John Koehnlein also hit an inside-the-park home run in the second inning for his first of the season. It was the first for a YSU player since Brent Parks' on May 19, 2007 against Cleveland State.

Six different pitchers worked for the Penguins as they prepared for the upcoming four-game Horizon League series this weekend. YSU will play a doubleheader Saturday against Butler starting at 1 p.m. and another double-dip Sunday against Milwaukee at 11 a.m.

Freshman Cody Dearth allowed six runs, only two of which were earned, on 10 hits over three innings in a losing effort. Matt Tucker threw two innings of scoreless relief, and Craig Gillet pitched 2/3 scoreless.

Josh Page had two hits to lead YSU, and Diedrich finished with three RBIs.

The Bobcats scored with two outs in the first when Marc Krauss singled, advanced on a wild pitch and crossed the plate when Brandon Besl singled.

The Penguins equaled that in the bottom half when Sean Lucas hit a one-out double and scored two batters later on a Joe Iacobucci single.

Three straight singles in the second gave Ohio a 2-1 lead, but Koehnlein's inside-the-parker that bounced to the wall over a diving Gauntlett Eldemire in left tied the score.

The Bobcats did their damage again with two outs in the third with four straight hits, a walk and a hit batsman with the bases loaded. They added a run in the fourth and opened up an 11-2 lead with four runs on three hits in the fifth.

Diedrich's two-run blast onto the roof of the batting cage in right cut the margin to seven in the bottom of the fifth, and YSU trailed 12-6 when Koehnlein scored on a throwing error and Diedrich had a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

The Bobcats added two runs in the ninth for the final tally.

Joe Stover earned the win despite allowing four runs on seven hits in 4.2 innings. Matt Schlarb threw 2.1 scoreless innings of relief.