BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Rutgers won its third BIG EAST Baseball Championship with a 7-6 victory over Connecticut in the league title game Saturday afternoon in front of 1,165 at KeySpan Park.
With the win, the Scarlet Knights earned an automatic bid into next week's NCAA Championship, winning their third BIG EAST title (also won in 2000 and 1998). RU won both the regular season and tournament titles all three years - a feat no other school has accomplished. Rutgers improved to 41-19 overall - the second most wins in school history.
"I am proud of these guys," Rutgers head coach Fred Hill said. "This team is something special, they truly deserve it. Steve [Healing] pitched another great game and we got the big hits to win it. We have had great success and it is good to add another title for this program. I am excited for these kids and look forward to Monday's selection show to see where we are at."
Rutgers will find out where it will be going in the NCAA Championship during the selection show on ESPN, Monday at 12:30.
Rutgers, the second seed in the tournament, jumped out to an early lead over eighth-seeded Connecticut when Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) (walk) and Mike Bionde (Pompton Plains, N.J.) (walk) executed a double steal and the Huskie catcher's throw to second was wild, allowing Frazier to come around score and Bionde to move over to third. Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) then followed a Tom Edwards (Caldwell, N.J.) walk with a bloop single to right field with two outs to plate Bionde. The right fielder bobbled the ball and an alert Edwards raced all the way around from first to score and give RU the 3-0 lead.
Connecticut (34-27) got a run on an RBI double from Josh Farkes in the second.
Meanwhile, senior ace Steve Healing (Brick, N.J.), pitching his second game in five days, rebounded from the run to work a 1-2-3 third and fourth frame.
Frazier, a National Player of the Year candidate, led off the fifth with a towering home run over the KeySpan Park scoreboard for his third blast of the tournament. The homer chased UConn starter Robert Van Woert out of the game, but the Huskie bullpen didn't provide much relief as Edwards hit a ball to the wall in center field later in the inning for an RBI double.
The Scarlet Knights extended their lead to 7-1 in the eighth when Frank Meade (Linden, N.J.) hit his second home run in as many days, clearing the wall in left-center field for a two-run blast with two outs in the frame.
The home run proved to be crucial as Connecticut rallied for two more runs off Healing in the ninth, ending his bid for his second complete-game in five days. As he exited the mound, Healing was greeted with a standing ovation by his teammates and the Scarlet Knight fans who made the trip to Brooklyn. The Huskies continued their rally off reliever Chris Lillis (Fair Haven, N.J.), scoring three more runs to make it 7-6 with one out in the ninth. Younger brother Kevin Lillis (Fair Haven, N.J.) came in and got a line out to shortstop before a fly out to right field to end the game, igniting a pile-on in the infield.
Healing showed no signs of being tired, pitching eight innings with three strikeouts and three runs on seven hits to improve to 10-3 on the year. Lillis picked up his second save in three days and third of the season.
Frazier, the Championship's Most Valuable Player, finished the six-game tournament .520 (13-for-25) from the plate with 12 runs, seven RBI, five doubles and three home runs. He scored more runs than five teams (St. John's, Notre Dame, USF, Villanova and Pittsburgh) combined in their games in the tournament. The Scarlet Knight All-American broke the tournament's run record, doubles (5) and total bases (27) record. His 13 hits tied the tournament's all-time mark.
With two home runs in the game, the Scarlet Knights set a new school record for home runs in a season with 60, topping the 58 blasts by the 1998 squad.
