TAMPA, Fla. – USF used a six-run first inning to top the Rutgers baseball team, 15-7, Saturday evening at Red McEwen Field in Tampa, Fla. The Scarlet Knights moved to 8-10 overall and 0-2 in the BIG EAST, while the Bulls improved to 12-7 overall and 2-0 in the league. 

Rutgers plated a run in the top of the first when Michael Lang (Dumont, N.J.) drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on an RBI groundout in the frame.

USF, however, responded with six runs in the bottom half of the first to surge out to a commanding lead on the Scarlet Knights, while ending starter Dennis Hill’s (Hillsdale, N.J.) day after two-thirds of an inning. USF’s Ryan Lockwood led off the inning with a home run and the Bulls collected five total hits and capitalized on a pair of Scarlet Knight errors in the frame to go on top early.

A Lang home run to left field gave Rutgers a run in the third and the Scarlet Knights plated two more runs in the fourth to close the game to three runs at 6-3. Senior Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, N.J.) doubled for the second time in as many at-bats and RU got run-producing singles from Jarred Jimenez (Monroe, N.J.) and Vinnie Sangemino (Nutley, N.J.) in the frame.

The Bulls got a run in the bottom half of the fourth to extend their lead to 7-3.

Rutgers saw the season debut of one of its top pitchers from a year ago when senior Jason Downey (Ballston Lake, N.Y.) took the mound in the fifth inning. He missed the final two weeks of the 2008 season and the first month of 2009 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Downey pitched a third of an inning, giving up two runs on two hits and two walks in his first live action in nearly a year. Greg Bayard (Scotch Plains, N.J.) came in on relief of Downey and closed out the inning, but the Bulls plated five runs in the frame to make it 12-3 through five.

A two-run seventh for USF was followed by a two-run eighth for the Scarlet Knights as Dan Betteridge (Sewell, N.J.) found the gap in left-center field for a double to put runners on second and third and Tim Reilly (Egg Harbor City, N.J.) got Russ Hopkins (Piscataway, N.J.) (hit by pitch)  home on a groundout to first base before Steven Zavala (Randolph, N.J.) singled home Betteridge.

USF got a run in the eighth and Rutgers answered with a score in the ninth on a Ryan Kapp (Toms River, N.J.) RBI double to make it 15-7.  

Derrick Stultz (3-1) got the win for USF with four strikeouts and four runs (two earned) on five hits in 5.1 innings, while Hill (1-2) suffered the loss with six runs on five hits in two-third of an inning.

The Scarlet Knights will close their series with USF and spring break trip Sunday with a 1:00 p.m. game in Tampa, Fla.