SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame collected 16 hits in an 11-2 victory over the Rutgers baseball team in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Frank Eck Stadium. The Scarlet Knights moved to 8-18 overall and 2-7 in the BIG EAST, while Notre Dame improved to 16-9-1 overall and 7-2 in the conference with a series sweep.
Notre Dame got its first run in the second when Ross Brezovsky doubled down the right field line and scored one play later on a Sean Gaston single up the middle.
David Mills reached on a fielder's choice in the third and raced around the bases on a pair of steals before scoring on an AJ Pollock single to open the scoring on a big inning for the Irish. A hit ND batter later put runners on first and second and the Irish used consecutive singles to plate two more runs. A third-straight Irish single off the bat of Gaston was mishandled by the right fielder, which allowed two runs to score. Gaston, who advanced to third on the error, scored the Irish's sixth run of the frame on their fifth single of the inning to give Notre Dame a 7-0 lead.
In the fourth, Pollock drew a leadoff walk and used a pair of steals to reach third, before scoring the Irish's eighth run on a Jeremy Barnes double.
Sophomore Brett Garlick (Livingston, N.J.) hit a leadoff single for Rutgers in the sixth and came around to score the Scarlet Knights' first run before Tom Edwards (West Caldwell, N.J.) followed an Irish infield error with an RBI groundout to score Callahan (fielder's choice) to cut it to 8-2.
ND sandwiched a pair of doubles from Brezovsky and Pollock around a throwing errors on a steal attempt to plate two more runs against newly-inserted Jason Downey (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) in the sixth.
The Irish added a run in the seventh en route to their second-straight 11-2 victory over the Scarlet Knights. ND has taken the last nine games from RU in South Bend, dating back to 2002.
Brezovsky finished the day 4-for-5 with a pair of RBI to lead Notre Dame offensively.
Junior Ryan Beard (Point Pleasant, N.J.) (0-3) suffered the loss for RU with seven runs (six earned) on nine hits in 2.1 innings, while Eric Maust (2-1) got the win for ND with two runs (one earned) on seven hits and four strikeouts in eight innings.
Rutgers returns home before traveling to New York City to take on Columbia University on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
