SOUTH ORANGE, NJ - With the game tied at 7-7 in the
12th inning, the Rutgers baseball team scored four runs, highlighted by a two-run
single by Colin Gaynor (Toms River, NJ), but in the bottom of the inning, Seton
Hall rallied for five runs to capture a thrilling, 12-11 victory over the Scarlet
Knights this afternoon in South Orange. With the loss, RU falls to 7-13 overall
and 1-2 in BIG EAST play.
Rutgers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second when Rich Canuso (Monroe, NJ)
walked, moved to third on a double by Gaynor and scored on a wild pitch. Johnny
Defendis (Staten Island, NY) followed with a triple to left-center, plating
Gaynor, and scored on an RBI groundout from Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, NJ). Seton
Hall, however, rallied for four runs in the bottom of the inning, capped emphatically
by a bases-loaded triple from Anthony Seratelli, to take a 4-3 lead.
In the third, RU tacked on two more runs for a 5-4 lead, as Defendis singled
up the middle, scoring Jeff Frazier (Toms River, NJ), who reached on a single,
and Canuso (hit by pitch). The Pirates answered with two of their own in the
bottom half, reclaiming the lead once again, 6-5.
In the sixth, Rutgers tied the game at 6-6 with on a pair of walks, a passed
ball and an RBI groundout from pinch-hitter Cory Rodriguez (Bridgewater, NJ),
who replaced Querns in the lineup. An inning later, Rutgers took a 7-6 lead
when Graig Badger (Union, NJ) led off with a triple and scored on a single
off the bat of Jeff Grose (Iselin, NJ). For third time in the game, however,
Rutgers' lead was short-lived, as SHU tied the game with a single run
in the bottom of the inning. Joey Scott led off with a double, advanced to
third on a fielder's choice and scored on Patrick Sullivan's sacrifice
fly.
The game remained tied through nine innings, as Scott fired three shutout
innings for Seton Hall and Tom Malafronte (Somerville, NJ) matched him for
the Scarlet Knights.
Facing Chris Noonan, who pitched nine innings on Tuesday vs. Monmouth and
2.1 innings on Saturday, in the 12th inning, Rutgers broke through with four
runs for its 11-7 lead. Badger opened the inning with a double and moved over
to third when Grose's sacrifice bunt was mishandled. Frazier followed
with a single to right, scoring Badger, and following a sacrifice by Canuso,
Gaynor plated two more runs with a single of his own. The fourth and final
run of the inning came across when Nick Cerulo (Woodbridge, NJ) singled to
center and Defendis scampered home.
Eerily similar to Rutgers' loss at Florida Atlantic on March 17, the
Scarlet Knights failed to shut the door after building a sizeable extra-inning
lead. OJ DeChristofano (Pequannock, NJ), who wiggled out of a bases-loaded,
one out jam the previous inning, allowed a leadoff single and, following and
infield error, walked Matt Cuttruff to load the bases with no outs. Bobby Acampora
(Ocean, NJ) was brought into pitch and after inducing a popup to left from
Scott, allowed an RBI single and bases-loaded walk as SHU cut the lead to 11-9.
Head coach Fred Hill went back to the bullpen for freshman Chris Rini (Flemington,
NJ), who issued another bases-loaded walk and then a two-run single to pinch-hitter
John Walsh to end the game.
Acampora (0-1) allowed two runs in .1 innings of work to suffer the loss,
wasting a standout long relief effort from Jim Jansen (Pascack Valley, NJ)
and Malafronte, who allowed just one run in 7.0 innings of work. Rutgers collected
11 hits, led by Gaynor (3-for-6, 2 RBI) and Defendis (2-for-5, 3 RBI), one
of four players with two hits for the Scarlet Knights.
Rutgers returns to action on Tuesday, when it opens its home schedule with
a non-conference game vs. Rider at 3:00 p.m. at the Class of '53 Complex.
The Rider game begins a stretch of five-straight home games through the weekend,
when RU hosts West Virginia for a three-game series.
** 2004 RUTGERS BASEBALL **
RUTGERS at Seton Hall
Mar 27, 2004 at South Orange, NJ (Owen T. Carroll Fld.)
RUTGERS 4 (7-11,1-3) Seton Hall 1 (4-14-1,1-0)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
BADGER, Graig 2b........... 2 2 1 0 SERATELLI 2b............... 1 1 1 0
GROSE, Jeff dh............. 3 0 1 1 PAHUTA 1b.................. 3 0 0 0
FRAZIER, Jeff rf........... 2 1 1 1 SCOTT 3b................... 2 0 0 1
CANUSO, Rich 1b............ 3 0 1 1 FULDA c.................... 3 0 1 0
GAYNOR, Colin c............ 3 0 1 0 CUTTRUFF rf................ 3 0 0 0
DEFENDIS, Johnny lf........ 4 0 0 1 YOUNG dh................... 2 0 0 0
CERULO, Nick cf............ 4 0 0 0 SCHWITZKY ph.............. 1 0 0 0
QUERNS, Tim 3b............. 3 1 2 0 SULLIVAN cf................ 3 0 1 0
GROVER, Jason ss........... 3 0 0 0 COHEN lf................... 2 0 0 0
EGBERT, Jack p............. 0 0 0 0 CHI ss..................... 3 0 0 0
SABO p..................... 0 0 0 0
NOONAN p.................. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 27 4 7 4 Totals..................... 23 1 3 1
Score by Innings R H E
-----------------------------------------
RUTGERS............. 101 101 0 - 4 7 0
Seton Hall.......... 001 000 0 - 1 3 2
-----------------------------------------
E - CHI; SABO. DP - RUTGERS 1. LOB - RUTGERS 9; Seton Hall 5. 2B - Frazier. HBP -
SERATELLI; SCOTT. SH - Gaynor. SF - Frazier. SB - Badger 2; Cerulo; SERATELLI 2.
RUTGERS IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
EGBERT, Jack W,3-1........ 7.0 3 1 1 2 6 0 0 2 0 23 27 6 8
Seton Hall IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SABO L,0-2................ 5.1 7 4 4 5 5 1 1 0 0 23 29 5 6
NOONAN .................... 1.2 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 5 1 3
WP - SABO. HBP - by Egbert (SERATELLI); by Egbert (SCOTT). BK - SABO. PB - FULDA 2.
Strikeouts - Badger; Frazier; Gaynor; Cerulo 2; Querns; PAHUTA; FULDA; CUTTRUFF;
SCHWITZKY; CHI 2. Walks - Badger 2; Grose; Frazier; Canuso; SERATELLI; COHEN.
