PITTSBURGH, Pa. - Junior National Player of the Year candidate Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) broke a 2-2 tie with his 18th home run of the season in the seventh and Rutgers added two insurance runs in the ninth as the Scarlet Knights downed Pittsburgh, 5-2, Saturday afternoon in BIG EAST baseball action at Trees Field.
Rutgers improved to 18-5 in the BIG EAST and, coupled with St. John's 5-4 loss to Cincinnati, took over sole possession of first place in the league. The Scarlet Knights also extended their winning streak to eight games and improved to 33-16 overall on the season. Pittsburgh fell to 13-9 in the conference and 24-23 overall.
Rutgers plated the game's first run in the fourth when Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) drove a ball down the right-field line for his team-leading third triple of the season and Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, N.J.) drove him home with a single to right field on the next play.
In the bottom of the fourth, Pitt's Seth Button hit a two-out triple and scored on a wild pitch before Dan Williams homered one batter later to give the Panthers a 2-1 advantage.
Pitt's lead didn't last long, however, as senior All-American candidate Dave Williams (Franklin, N.J.) led off the sixth inning with a mammoth home run over the left-field fence to knot it up.
After Rutgers starter Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) struck out the side in the sixth, Frazier broke the tie with his school-record 18th home run of the season. The hit also tied his brother, Jeff Frazier (2002-04) for fifth place on the school's all-time hits list with 220 for his career. It also tied him for 10th place in BIG EAST history with his 18th career home run in league play.
After giving up a two-out hit in the eighth, Gaynor handed the ball over to reliever Matt Patterson (Passaic, N.J.) to face the left-handed Morgan Kielty. After Kielty was hit, last night's winning pitcher Chris Lillis (Fair Haven. N.J.) came in with runners on first and second and induced an inning-ending groundout to get the Scarlet Knights out of the jam.
Gaynor improved to 4-2 on the season with a strong performance in 7.2 innings of work. He allowed just two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts on Saturday. Lillis picked up his third save of the season with 1.1 innings of hitless relief.
Paul Nardozzi took the loss, falling to 5-5 on the season with three runs on five hits and seven strikeouts in eight innings.
Frazier also scored his 66th run of the season to tie current Kansas City Royals starting center field David DeJesus (2000) for second place on the Rutgers all-time runs chart. He also passed DeJesus (1999) and Doug Alongi (1993) to move into second place on the school's total bases list with 144 on the year. Lillis tied Marty O'Brien (1986-89) for fourth place on the RU all-time saves list with his 11th career save and tied Matt Pustay (2003-06) for second place all-time with this 77th career appearance.
Rutgers and Pittsburgh will wrap up the series with a noon game tomorrow. Sophomore righty Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) will be on the mound for the Scarlet Knights against freshman lefty Nate Reed for the Panthers.
