PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball dropped the series opener against No. 11 Minnesota, 4-0, Thursday at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights have now played 14 games against an opponent appearing in the national polls this season.
Senior
John O'Reilly (5-4) made his final collegiate start and battled for 7.2 innings. The right-hander left six runners on base, picked up 12 outs on the ground and struck out three to keep RU within striking distance. His 49 career starts rank second in program history, while sitting fourth with 300.2 innings and seventh with 174 strikeouts. Sophomore
Tevin Murray followed up and retired all four batters faced out of the bullpen.
Offensively, senior
Milo Freeman led the Scarlet Knights (25-24, 7-15) by going 2-for-3 to raise his career hit total to 131. Junior
Jawuan Harris picked up a single and stole a base to make it 82 career swipes, three short of the school record.
Reggie Meyer (6-3) collected the win for Minnesota (36-13, 17-4) with eight shutout innings on the mound, scattering three hits. Max Meyer worked the ninth.
After each side went down scoreless in the first two innings, the Golden Gophers used an RBI single by Terrin Vavra to take the lead in the third. O'Reilly minimized the rally by stranding runners at the corners. However, the visitors connected for four-straight hits with two outs in the fourth to add three more runs.
O'Reilly kept the score there, including inducing a double play in the sixth. Rutgers leads the Big Ten with 49 twin killings this season, an average of one per game.
The Scarlet Knights threatened in the eighth when junior
Carmen Sclafani drew a one-out walk and Freeman singled, but both were left on.
Game two of the series is set for Friday at 1 p.m. Check @RutgersBaseball on Twitter for possible game-time updates.
Follow Rutgers Athletics on
Facebook and Twitter
(@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding baseball, follow the program on Twitter (
@RutgersBaseball), Instagram
(@rutgersbaseball), Facebook (
/BaseballRU) and Snapchat (rutgersbaseball). For additional updates, please download the
Gameday App.
