PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Senior Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) lifted the Rutgers baseball team to a 5-4 victory over Villanova with an RBI single to center field in the 12th inning of game one before the Wildcats evened the series with a 7-4 win in game two of Saturday's BIG EAST doubleheader in front of 563 fans at Bainton Field.
Rutgers and Villanova remain tied for eighth place in the BIG EAST standings with identical 10-13 marks in league play. The Scarlet Knights (22-26-1) and Wildcats (26-23) meet tomorrow to decide the series and likely decide a berth in the BIG EAST Tournament, as the top eight teams in the conference advance to the league tournament in Clearwater, Fla. May 20-24.
Down, 2-0, in game one, Rutgers cut Villanova's lead in half on one swing when freshman Jaren Matthews (Teaneck, N.J.) took Jordan Ellis' second offering over the right-field fence for his ninth home run of the season.
Freshman Michael Lang (Dumont, N.J.) drew a walk off a full count with one out in the sixth, stole second and scored one play later on a Vinnie Sangemino (Nutley, N.J.) single through the left side to tie it up. A single from Donny Callahan (Sparta, N.J.) brought home pinch runner Brett Garlick (Livingston, N.J.) later in the inning to give the Scarlet Knights their first lead of the contest.
Villanova re-gained the advantage off newly-inserted Kevin Lillis (Fair Haven, N.J.) next inning, however, as Derek Shunk followed a two-out single from Ryan Arcadia with a two-run home run to left field to make it 4-3.
With the one-run advantage, the Wildcats went to their closer, Josh Eidell, in the bottom of the eighth. Sophomore Jarred Jimenez (Monroe, N.J.) greeted him with a leadoff single to left field and some alert base running by Jimenez moved the Scarlet Knight all the way to third on a sacrifice bunt. Lang lifted a ball to deep center field to get Jimenez home on the sacrifice fly to tie it up.
New reliever Ryan Beard (Point Pleasant, N.J.) worked a 1-2-3 ninth and Eidell retired the Scarlet Knights in order in the bottom half of the frame to force extra innings.
Beard gave up a one-out triple to Dan Terpak in the 10th and an intentional walk to the next batter set the stage for an attempted double steal. Beard turned around and fired to second baseman Vic Cegles (Phoenix, Ariz.), who alertly fired home to get the lead runner heading for the plate out. Beard then ended the threat with an inning-ending strikeout.
Beard and Eidell followed with a scoreless 11th frame and the RU reliever retired the Wildcats in order in the 12th to set up the extra-inning heroics from Gossard. Callahan led off the 12th with a bloop single to center field and was sacrificed into scoring position where Gossard followed an intentional walk of Matthews with a game-winning single to center field to bring home Callahan, igniting a celebration at home plate.
Beard picked up the win with four innings of scoreless, one-hit relief with five strikeouts, while Eidell was tagged with the loss after giving up the winning run in the 12th. He hurled 4.1 innings of relief. Junior Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) started the game for Rutgers and tossed 5.1 innings with two runs on five hits and three strikeouts in the no decision.
Rutgers game two starter Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) was forced to leave the game after just 20 pitches in his third start back from injury. Villanova jumped on top with a three-run first inning that included three-straight singles to open the game and was capped by a two-run triple from James Dolbier later in the frame.
The Scarlet Knights threatened in the bottom half of the first when game one hero, Gossard, doubled down the right-field line and Dan Betteridge (Sewell, N.J.) attempted to score from first, but the sophomore was tagged out at the plate thanks to an excellent relay throw from the Villanova first baseman.
Freshman Dale Hering (Montgomery, N.J.) came out to start the second and bounced back from a run in the inning to hurl five-straight scoreless innings. Meanwhile, RU plated a pair of runs in the second and third to tie it up at 4-4.
Rutgers got runners on first and third in the second thanks to a Jayson Hernandez (Belmar, N.J.) double and Langsingle. Lang attempted to steal second and the throw from Villanova catcher Wesley Borden went into center field, allowing Hernandez to come home on the play. With Lang now on third from the wild throw, Vinnie Sangemino (Nutley, N.J.) got him home with a chopper to the third baseman. In the third, a one-out single from Betteridge was followed by a pair of doubles from Matthews and Gossard to bring home the two runs in the frame and tie it up.
Hering ran into trouble in the seventh when an error put leadoff man Ryan Arcadia on and Shunk was hit. The freshman handed the ball over to Matt Patterson (Passaic, N.J.) and the senior reliever got one out, but Arcadia and Shunk both moved into scoring position on a double steal and Dolbier came up with his second big hit of the game, doubling down the right-field line to bring home both runners and put the Wildcats back on top, 6-4.
Villanova added a run in the eighth en route to the 7-4 victory as starter Brian Streilein (5-4) bounced back from the second and third frames to earn the complete game win with three strikeouts and four runs (three earned) on 12 hits in the 126-pitch performance. Hering (1-1) took the loss with two earned runs (three total) on five hits and a strikeout in five innings in his first career league action.
Gossard and Lang each collected four hits, including a pair of doubles, in the doubleheader for the Scarlet Knights.
Sunday's game starts at 1:00 p.m. with a special Senior Day ceremony scheduled prior to the contest. Sunday will also serve as Youth Day at Bainton Field where children will receive a team photo for autographs and are invited to run the bases after the game.
