QUEENS, N.Y. - Freshman Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) pitched a complete game with six strikeouts to lead the Rutgers baseball team to an 8-3 victory over St. John's Sunday afternoon at Jack Kaiser Stadium. With the win, the Scarlet Knights improved to 13-12 overall and 4-2 in BIG EAST play, while the Red Storm fell to 12-11 overall and 3-3 in conference action.
The Scarlet Knight hurler retired the first six batters of the contest and finished the game strong with two strikeouts in the ninth, including a punch out to end the game and improve to 2-1 on the season. He walked just one and allowed three runs on nine hits, matching his season-high with six strikeouts.
Rutgers, once again, jumped on the board first against St. John's. Junior Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) drew a four-pitch walk and moved all the way to third base on an infield error on the next play where junior Ryan Hill (Hillsdale, N.J.) drove him home with a single back up the middle in the third. Then, with senior Mike Bionde (Pompton Plains, N.J.) on second, sophomore Tom Edwards (Caldwell, N.J.) laced a ball back up the middle to plate Bionde and give the Scarlet Knights a 2-0 lead.
St. John's, however, matched Rutgers with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom half of the third inning to tie the game back up.
Gaynor continued to dominate the Red Storm with 1-2-3 fourth and fifth frames, including an inning-ending double play in the fifth.
In the sixth, another error proved costly for St. John's when Edwards reached on the infield miscue and Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) followed with a two-run home run over the left-field fence to give the Scarlet Knights a 4-2 lead.
The Red Storm got within one score at 4-3 with a two-out run in the bottom half of the sixth but that was as close as they would get.
With SJU starter George Brown out of the game to enter the eighth, Rutgers put together a two-out rally in the inning. The Scarlet Knights scored three runs in the frame to balloon its lead to 7-3. Designated hitter Jarred Jimenez (Monroe, N.J.) hit an RBI single to right field to plate the first run and Donny Callahan (Sparta, N.J.) followed with an RBI single to left field. With Jimenez using a wild pitch to move over to third base, sophomore Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, N.J.) drove the freshman home with a single to right field to make it 7-3.
The Scarlet Knights capitalized on the Red Storm's fourth error of the contest to tack on a run in the ninth and Gaynor finished off the game with a pair of strikeouts in the bottom half of the ninth for the 8-3 final.
Brown (2-1) took the loss for St. John's with four runs (two earned) on six hits and six strikeouts in seven innings.
All nine Scarlet Knight recorded a hit in Sunday's contest with Gossard and Jimenez each collecting two hits on the day. Edwards finished 1-for-4 with an RBI to extend his hitting streak to eight games, but his streak of multi-hit games came to an end at five.
Rutgers returns home where it will play its next five games, beginning with a 3:00 p.m. game on Tuesday against Wagner at Bainton Field.
