MIAMI, Fla. - Junior Ryan Hill (Hillsdale, N.J.) continued his torrid pace, going 3-for-5 from the plate with two home runs and four RBI to lead the Rutgers baseball team to a 12-5 victory over Florida International Friday night at University Park Stadium.
The victory improves the Scarlet Knights to 6-4 on the season and puts head coach Fred Hill within one victory of No. 900 for his career.
FIU (10-7) plated a run in the first to stake an early lead but the Scarlet Knights tagged Golden Panther starter Jorge Ramos with three runs in the second to take a 3-1 advantage and never looked back en route to the victory.
RU got things started in the second when strike three to Dave Williams (Franklin, N.J.) went under the catcher's glove and back to the backstop allowing Williams to reach first base. Williams made the Golden Panthers pay for the miscue, coming around to score later in the inning when Tom Edwards (Caldwell, N.J.) followed a Frank Meade (Linden, N.J.) walk with an RBI single to left field. With Meade now on third, designated hitter Nick Stavrakis (Warren, N.J.) drilled a ball to right field to bring home Meade and Edwards scored the final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, N.J.) on the next play.
FIU got one of those runs back on a two-out RBI double by Corey Lozano to cut the RU lead to 3-2 in the second and threatened to tie it up in the third, putting its first two batters on base. However, Rutgers starter Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) worked out of the third-inning jam, sandwiching a pair of fly outs around a strikeout to get out of the inning unscathed.
In the fourth, Stavrakis drilled a ball off the wall in right-center field for a two-out triple and Feliz followed with an RBI single to left field to give RU some breathing room with a 4-2 advantage.
Ryan Hill, the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week, banged a solo home run to left-center field in the fifth inning to extend Rutgers's lead to 5-2. Three batters later, Meade hit what appeared to be an inning-ending grounder to third base but the FIU third baseman's throw to first sailed high, allowing Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, N.J.) (walk) to score all the way from first base.
FIU got both those runs back in the bottom half of the inning, capitalizing on a Rutgers error to pull back within two runs of the Scarlet Knights at 6-4. Florida International returned the gift in the sixth and Rutgers used the Golden Panther error to plate a run when Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) scored on Mike Bionde's (Pompton Plains, N.J.) team-leading fifth double of the season for the 7-4 advantage.
The Golden Panthers got a run in the seventh to make it 7-5, ending Giannini's day with two outs in the frame. The Scarlet Knight sophomore righty struck out a season-high seven batters, allowing just two earned runs (five total) on seven hits in 6.2 innings of work for the victory to improve to 2-2. Freshman lefty Dennis Hill (Hillsdale, N.J.) came in for the final out of the inning.
Brother Ryan Hill ballooned the Rutgers lead to five runs in the eighth inning with his second home run of the game, smacking a towering, three-run shot to right field. RU tacked on two more runs in the frame on RBI singles from Edwards and Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) to make it 12-5.
Dennis Hill finished things off for RU with 2.1 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief for his first career save.
In his last four games, Ryan Hill has reached base safely in 16 of 22 plate appearances with five home runs, 10 runs scored and 10 RBI, while earning six walks.
Rutgers and Florida International will continue their series with a 1:00 p.m. game tomorrow. Senior righty Steve Healing (Brick, N.J.) will get the start for the Scarlet Knights. FIU will counter with junior righty Chris Allen, who was moved up a day in the starting rotation for Saturday's contest.
