PISCATAWAY, NJ – The Rutgers baseball team extended
its overall winning streak to eight games, and its BIG EAST streak to seven,
with a doubleheader sweep of Virginia Tech (10-2; 6-2) today at the Class of ’53
Baseball Complex. Sophomore Jack Egbert (Rutherford, NJ) won his sixth-straight
start in the opener, while Shaun Parker (Westampton, NJ) took a one-hitter
into the ninth in the nightcap. The 3-4-5 hitters in RU’s lineup – Jeff
Frazier (Toms River, NJ), Vinny Esposito (Middletown, NJ) and Matt Wolski (Hamilton,
NJ) – supplied the offense, finishing the twin bill a combined 13-for-19
with eight runs and 11 RBI. With the wins, RU is now 20-14 overall and 12-3
in BIG EAST play.
Trailing 1-0 in the opener, Rutgers scored three runs in the third and three
more in the fifth to pull away from the Hokies. In the third, Jeff Grose (Iselin,
NJ) began the RU rally with a two-out walk and Jeff Frazier (Toms River, NJ)
followed with a double to left, putting runners at second and third for Vinny
Esposito (Middletown, NJ), who doubled deep to left-center, giving RU a 2-1
lead. Matt Wolski (Hamilton, NJ) followed with a crisp single through the box,
plating Esposito for a 3-1 edge.
In the fifth, Graig Badger (Union, NJ) and Grose reached on back-to-back infield
errors and Frazier made the Hokies pay, hammering a three-run HR to left-center,
his team-leading fifth of the season. The Scarlet Knioghts added four more
in the sixth, on a two-out RBI single from Grose, another two-run double by
Esposito and another RBI single from Wolski.
Virginia Tech reached Egbert for a run in the first, when Marc Tugwell was
hit by a pitch with two outs, stole second and scored on an infield hit, followed
by a throwing error, with Wyatt Toregas at the plate. It did not score again
until the sixth, stringing together three hits to cut the gap to 6-2 before
RU finished off the scoring with four more in the bottom of the inning. Egbert
cruised through the middle innings and finished off his sixth-straight win
in style, inducing a lineout double play to Mike Bionde (Pompton Plains, NJ)
to end the game.
In 7.0 innings, Egbert (6-3, 5-0 BE) allowed five hits and one earned run,
striking out six without a walk. He retired 13 in a row from the end of the
first through the end of the fifth inning, lowering his ERA to 4.97. In his
last four starts, Egbert is 4-0 with a 2.00 ERA, allowing just 20 hits in 27.0
innings.
Frazier was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBI, while Esposito was
2-for-3 with two runs and four RBI. Wolski was 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI as
well, while Grose was 1-for-1 with three runs scored.
Rutgers came out swinging in the second, scoring three runs in the opening
inning. Badger reached base on an infield error to open the inning and scored
on a double down the left-field line by Grose. Frazier followed with a sharp
single to center, scoring Grose with the inning’s second run. A walk
to Esposito and a single by Wolski loaded the bases for Colin Gaynor (Toms
River, NJ), who blooped a single into left-center, driving home Frazier with
the third and final run of the frame. Rutgers added to is lead in the third,
when Gaynor’s sacrifice fly scored Esposito (single) to increase the
advantage to 4-0.
RU added two more runs in the seventh when Grose opened with a triple to right-center
and scored on an RBI single from Esposito. The sixth and final run crossed
on a sacrifice fly by Steve Normane (Pt. Pleasant, NJ).
Parker took his shutout, and one-hitter, into the ninth, but opened with a
walk and an infield single before being lifted in favor of freshman Chris Lillis
(Fair Haven, NJ), who yielded a run-scoring single but ended the game with
a double-play lineout to Badger.
Parker (2-1) allowed two hits, both infield singles, in 8.2 innings of work,
walking three while striking out a career-high eight hitters. Both of his runs
were unearned. He is now 2-1 with a 4.25 ERA in BIG EAST play, spanning 29.2
innings, but has allowed just 12 hits and four earned runs in his last 22 innings
of action. Grose (double, triple), Esposito, Wolski and Normane checked in
with two hits apiece in the second game. Wolski is now hitting .419 overall
after his 5-for-6 effort today.
"We received some outstanding starting pitching today, which really set
the tone for us," said head coach Fred Hill. "We did a nice job today
of putting Virginia Tech away and not giving them a chance to get back into
either game. We beat a very good team today."
The two teams will meet again tomorrow in a single game at 12 noon. Freshman
Matt Pustay (Hamilton, NJ) will make his second career start for Rutgers.
** 2003 RUTGERS BASEBALL **
Virginia Tech at Rutgers
Apr 27, 2003 at Piscataway, NJ (Class of 53 Complex)
Virginia Tech 2 (27-13,10-5 BIG EAST) Rutgers 10 (19-14,11-3 BIG EAST)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Stanton 3b................. 3 0 1 0 BADGER, Graig 2b........... 3 1 0 0
Winterfeldt 1b............. 3 0 0 0 GROSE, Jeff lf............. 1 3 1 1
Tugwell 2b................. 2 1 1 1 FRAZIER, Jeff rf........... 4 3 3 3
Toregas c.................. 3 0 1 1 ESPOSITO, Vinny 3b......... 3 2 2 4
Harris ss.................. 3 0 0 0 WOLSKI, Matt dh............ 4 0 3 2
Bauder cf.................. 3 0 1 0 NORMANE, Steve 1b.......... 4 0 0 0
Kalish rf.................. 3 0 0 0 CERULO, Nick cf............ 3 0 0 0
Beall lf................... 2 0 0 0 VASQUEZ, Alberto c......... 2 1 0 0
Adams dh................... 2 1 1 0 BIONDE, Mike ss............ 3 0 0 0
Kennedy p.................. 0 0 0 0 EGBERT, Jack p............. 0 0 0 0
Musialowski p............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 24 2 5 2 Totals..................... 27 10 9 10
Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
Virginia Tech....... 100 001 0 - 2 5 2
Rutgers............. 003 034 X - 10 9 1
-----------------------------------------
E - Stanton 2(13); ESPOSITO(9). DP - Rutgers 2. LOB - Va. Tech 2; Rutgers 5. 2B -
FRAZIER(12); ESPOSITO 2(11). HR - FRAZIER(3). HBP - Tugwell. SH - GROSE 2(4). SB -
Tugwell(13); WOLSKI(4); VASQUEZ(2).
Virginia Tech IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kennedy L,6-2............. 5.0 5 7 5 4 1 0 0 0 0 20 26 8 6
Musialowski ............... 1.0 4 3 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 7 7 0 2
Rutgers IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EGBERT, Jack W,6-3........ 7.0 5 2 1 0 6 1 0 1 0 24 25 4 9
WP - EGBERT(3). HB - EGBERT.
Strikeouts - Toregas 2; Harris; Kalish 2; Beall; ESPOSITO; BIONDE. Walks - BADGER;
GROSE; ESPOSITO; VASQUEZ.
Umpires -
Start: 12:00 pm Time: 1:38 Attendance: 250
Game: VT-1
Kennedy faced 1 batter in the 6th.
** 2003 RUTGERS BASEBALL **
Virginia Tech at Rutgers
Apr 27, 2003 at Piscataway, NJ (Class of 53 Complex)
Virginia Tech 2 (27-14,10-6 BIG EAST) Rutgers 6 (20-14,12-3 BIG EAST)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Stanton 3b................. 2 1 0 0 BADGER, Graig 2b........... 5 1 1 0
Winterfeldt 1b............. 4 0 0 0 GROSE, Jeff lf............. 4 2 2 1
Tugwell 2b................. 4 1 1 0 FRAZIER, Jeff rf........... 3 2 1 1
Toregas c.................. 4 0 1 1 ESPOSITO, Vinny 3b......... 3 1 2 1
Dalton ss.................. 4 0 0 0 WOLSKI, Matt dh............ 2 0 2 0
Bauder cf.................. 3 0 0 0 NORMANE, Steve 1b.......... 3 0 2 1
McDonald dh................ 1 0 0 0 GAYNOR, Colin c............ 3 0 1 2
Beall rf................... 3 0 0 0 DEFENDIS, Johnny cf........ 4 0 0 0
Adams lf................... 3 0 1 0 BIONDE, Mike ss............ 3 0 0 0
Landing p.................. 0 0 0 0 PARKER, Shaun p............ 0 0 0 0
Bowers p.................. 0 0 0 0 LILLIS, Chris p........... 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 28 2 3 1 Totals..................... 30 6 11 6
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Virginia Tech....... 000 000 002 - 2 3 1
Rutgers............. 301 000 20X - 6 11 1
-------------------------------------------
E - Stanton(14); NORMANE(4). DP - Va. Tech 1; Rutgers 1. LOB - Va. Tech 3; Rutgers
7. 2B - GROSE(2). 3B - GROSE(5). HBP - McDonald; FRAZIER; WOLSKI. SH - WOLSKI(7). SF
- NORMANE(3); GAYNOR(1). CS - Stanton(6); WOLSKI.
Virginia Tech IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Landing L,3-3............. 7.0 11 6 5 2 5 0 0 2 0 27 34 8 5
Bowers .................... 1.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 2 1
Rutgers IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PARKER, Shaun W,2-1....... 8.1 2 2 0 3 8 1 0 1 0 26 30 8 8
LILLIS, Chris ............. 0.2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 1 0
WP - PARKER(5). HB - Landing 2; PARKER.
Strikeouts - Winterfeldt 2; Dalton; Bauder; McDonald; Beall 2; Adams; GROSE; FRAZIER
2; ESPOSITO; BIONDE. Walks - Stanton 2; McDonald; ESPOSITO; BIONDE.
Umpires -
Start: 12:00 pm Time: 2:15 Attendance: 250
Game: VTECH-2
