PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Junior All-American Todd Frazier (Toms River, N.J.) homered twice and sophomore Ryan Hill (Hillsdale, N.J.) hit a grand slam as Rutgers cruised to a 16-6 victory over Cincinnati in the opener. The Scarlet Knights used a fine pitching performance by Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) to win game two, 7-3, and complete the sweep over the Bearcats in BIG EAST baseball action Saturday afternoon at Bainton Field.
With the sweep, Rutgers re-claimed first place in the BIG EAST standings, tying St. John's for the top spot with an identical 15-5 league mark. The Scarlet Knights improved to 29-16 overall. Cincinnati fell to 8-11 in the conference and 25-22 overall.
In the game one victory, Rutgers did most of its damage in the first inning. After Cincinnati staked a 2-0 lead following a half inning of play, the Scarlet Knights responded with an eight-run first inning. Frazier led off with a solo home run and capped the scoring with his second home run of the inning, this time a three-run blast over the wall in left-center field. Senior All-American candidate Dave Williams (Franklin, N.J.), sophomore Tom Edwards (Caldwell, N.J.) and junior Frank Meade (Linden, N.J.) also collected RBI singles in the frame. Edwards later came around to score on a wild pitch.
RU scored a run in the third before a seven-run sixth inning ballooned the Scarlet Knights' lead to 16-2. With Cincinnati starter Steve Blevins out of the game to start the seventh, the Scarlet Knights tagged Bearcat reliever Matt Heber with seven runs in two-thirds of an inning. A bases-loaded walk by Meade brought in the first run before a sacrifice fly by Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, N.J.) on the next play plated another score. RU then re-loaded the bases on a Frazier walk and an infield hit by Mike Bionde (Pompton Plains, N.J.) scored another run. With three runs already across, and the bases still loaded, Hill cleared the bases with a grand slam to opposite field, clearing the left-field fence for his seventh home run of the season.
Cincinnati scored three runs in Rutgers starter Steve Healing's (Brick, N.J.) final inning in the seventh to make it 16-5. Healing put together another strong outing, striking out six and allowing four earned runs (five total) on eight hits with two walks to improve to 7-3 on the season and 5-1 in BIG EAST play. Blevins (5-7) was tagged with the loss with nine runs (eight earned) on 11 hits and six strikeouts in five innings.
The Bearcats added a run in the eighth off O.J. DeChristofano (Pequannock, N.J.) before the senior reliever shut Cincinnati down in the ninth, ending the game on a strikeout to complete the game one victory.
A four-run second inning gave Rutgers an early 4-0 lead in game two. Meade brought home the first run on a sacrifice fly and Feliz and Bionde sandwiched RBI singles around an RBI double from Frazier to stake the early lead.
Rutgers and Cincinnati traded runs in the third with the Bearcats scoring on a two-out double by Josh Harrison and the Scarlet Knights plating a run on an RBI double down the left-field line from Tim Querns (Cherry Hill, N.J.).
Back-to-back doubles by Harrison and Neall French gave Cincinnati a run in the sixth to cut RU's lead to 5-2.
Scarlet Knight hurler Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) was putting on a performance with a career-best nine strikeouts and just the two hiccups in 6.1 innings. After surrendering a double to nine-spot hitter Ryan Baker with one out in the seventh, he handed the ball over to lefty reliever Matt Patterson (Passaic, N.J.). Cincinnati loaded the bases on an error and a walk, and with the dangerous righty Harrison coming to bat, sophomore righty Jason Downey (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) came in. He got Harrison to fly out to right field in foul territory but Baker came in from third to pull within 5-3.
The Scarlet Knights answered in the bottom half of the seventh when Williams walked and, three plays later, scored on a Querns single up the middle. With Querns now on second, thanks to a pass ball, Meade hit a sharp single through the left side to bring him home and make it 7-3.
Downey held the Bearcats at bay, allowing just two hits over the final 2.2 innings to earn the save as the Scarlet Knights completed the sweep. Gaynor improved to 3-2 on the year, allowing two earned runs (three total) on seven hits to go along with his nine strikeouts in 6.1 innings. John Baired (2-2) of Cincinnati was tagged with the loss with seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits in seven innings.
Gossard had a hit in each game on Saturday to extend his hitting streak to a team-best 22 games. Bionde led the Scarlet Knights with five hits, while Frazier drove in a team-best five runs in the doubleheader.
Frazier's five RBI moved him into seventh place on the school's all-time RBI list with 138. With four hits on the afternoon he passed Bob Windows (1992-95) to move into seventh place on the RU all-time hits chart with 216. He also drew a pair of walks to pass Scott Trochim (1984-87) and move into second place on the school's all-time walks list.
Rutgers and Cincinnati will close out the series with a noon game tomorrow at Bainton Field. Sophomore righty Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) will be on the mound for the Scarlet Knights against sophomore lefty Dan Osterbrock for the Bearcats.
