Ohio

STILLWATER, Okla. -- Team Maryland rallied from an eight-run deficit to defeat Team Ohio, 13-9, yesterday at the Sun Belt Classic at Oklahoma State.Trailing 9-1 in the fifth inning, Team Maryland (2-1) scored three runs, cutting Ohio's lead to 9-4. In the next inning, Maryland sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs. Ron Hartman (Archbishop Curley) scored the tie-breaking run for Maryland on a wild pitch.Ronnie Shankle had three hits and two RBI for Maryland. Ronnie Leatherman and Bobby St. Pierre added two hits and two RBI each.

DAYTON, Ohio - Less than 14 percent of Ohio is developed, while 43 percent remains cropland, according to a new report on sprawl in the state. From 1949 to 1992, Ohio acreage in forests grew faster than development- which has lagged behind the rest of the nation since 1982. These are among the findings of the report released recently by the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions in Columbus, which flies in the face of smart-growth initiatives aimed at controlling suburban sprawl, while stemming flight from Ohio's largest cities.

An Ohio man pleaded guilty yesterday to engineering a half-million dollar scam of local governments, including Baltimore, by impersonating a representative of city-approved vendors and persuading officials to send him replacement checks for ones issued to the companies. James Leroy Shorts, 34, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, was arrested in March and charged with 10 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering related to allegations in Maryland. Prosecutors said the scheme cost Maryland $160,000.

What started as an unusual investment by the state of Ohio in rare coins - including the purchase of nickels, dimes and pennies dating to the 1700s - has exploded into a political and legal scandal. Yesterday, the director of Ohio's workers' compensation bureau resigned after authorities learned that as much as $13 million of the state's $55.4 million investment may be missing. James Conrad, once dubbed "Mr. Fixit" for his reputation of turning around troubled programs, said he would voluntarily resign over the scandal.

COLLEGE PARK -- Ron Vanderlinden said beforehand that he would be happy to come away with a one-point win in his first game as Maryland's football coach.Terps fans would have settled for that, too.The Vanderlinden era opened disastrously last night before 30,100 at Byrd Stadium, where Maryland was unceremoniously dumped by Ohio, 21-14. The Terps played to near perfection for 17 minutes, then blew a 14-0 lead, thanks to breakdowns on offense, defense and special teams.L It was a team effort, and the guy at the top took the blame.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It's a source of pride to Ohio Republicans that no member of their party has ever won the presidency without carrying their state. That record goes back 132 years, to the election of the first GOP president, Abraham Lincoln.That pre-eminent political strategist, Richard Nixon, counseled candidate George Bush in 1988 to focus his heaviest resources on Ohio as the one state that could guarantee his victory. Nixon had reason to know, however, that Ohio was never enough. He beat John F. Kennedy by 273,000 votes here in 1960 and still lost the election.

UNIONVILLE, Ohio - The lunch crowd was heedless of the runaway slave tunnels beneath the Unionville Tavern, where Debra Laveck poked around, trying to rediscover an old Underground Railroad crawlway to a cemetery across the road. "There was a fake grave over there where the abolitionists had the runaways climb down into the tunnel," Laveck explained. She was delving deep into the historic past, where the cramped tunnel, barely wide enough for a slave's shoulders, snaked darkly below what is now a paved road.

A Maryland fugitive described by investigators as a serial molester of children died in a fiery crash on an Ohio highway early yesterday when the stolen car he was driving crashed head-on into a tractor-trailer as police gave chase, authorities said.Kyle Winston Sherrill, 54, charged in the June 25 kidnapping of a 6-year-old Ohio girl and wanted for questioning in a similar abduction in Illinois, was dead on impact shortly before 4 a.m., said Sgt. John Born, a spokesman for the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Checkfree Corp. shares rose as much as 27 percent yesterday as investors chased shares of the electronic commerce company, a maker of software for doing business on the Internet.Shares of the Columbus-based company, priced at $18, closed up $3.50, at $21.50, on trading of 5.6 million shares, making it the fourth-most-active issue on the Nasdaq market and seventh overall."Everyday you hear something new about the 'Net," said Iang Jeon, a money and technology analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

Jean W. Chalk, a state steward at Maryland's racetracks since 1984, will retire after today's card at Laurel Park.The Ohio native said he will continue to live in Columbia and will referee high school basketball and umpire softball and play senior-league basketball and softball."