PISCATAWAY, N.J. (April 18, 2010) – Freshman pitcher Dan O’Neill (Garfield, N.J.) fired seven strong innings without surrendering an earned run and the Scarlet Knights’ offense plated seven runs in the fourth inning en route to a lopsided 13-1 victory over USF in the series finale and earn the sweep of the Bulls Sunday afternoon at Bainton Field.
Rutgers won its sixth-straight weekend series and earned its second BIG EAST sweep (also swept Georgetown), while posting its sixth-straight victory overall to remain atop the BIG EAST standings. The Scarlet Knights are now 21-13 overall and 10-2 in the league, tied with Connecticut in first place. The BIG EAST leaders will square off in a three-game series in Storrs, Conn. this coming weekend.
The 21-13 mark and 10-2 league record is the best start for RU since 2004 when the Scarlet Knights opened the campaign with identical marks.
Rutgers continued its scoring barrage, posting five or more runs for the 18th-straight game with 13 on Sunday. The last time RU was held under five runs in a contest was in a 3-1 loss to Old Dominion on March 19.
With the newly added “Fred Hill 1,000 Wins” sign now a fixture on the wall in left field and the words “1,000” chalked into the dirt behind home plate, the Scarlet Knights went right back to work in giving the RU mentor his 1,001st win.
Like it has all season, the top of the Scarlet Knights’ lineup continued to produce runs for RU as the duo of Michael Lang (Dumont, N.J.) and Pat Biserta (Pt. Pleasant, N.J.) hit back-to-back doubles to plate the first run of the game in the third and the Scarlet Knights tacked on a second run in the frame.
Junior Brandon Boykin (Teaneck, N.J.) came up with runners on the corners and one out in the fourth and took USF starter Matt Quevedo’s first offering to left field to bring in a pair of runs and spark a seven-run inning for the Scarlet Knights. Boykin then stole second and third and came home to score on Lang’s second double of the game as Quevedo was replaced by Doug Wagner. A pair of wild pitches allowed Lang to come around to score and a four-pitch walk to Biserta preceded another call to the bullpen for the Bulls. An infield error allowed another Scarlet Knight aboard and junior Jaren Matthews (Teaneck, N.J.) took a 0-2 offering from the newly-inserted USF reliever Zach Pietrzyk to the gap in left-center field for an RBI double. A five-pitch walk loaded the bases with two outs and sophomore Russ Hopkins (Piscataway, N.J.) drilled a ball over the center fielder’s head for a two-run double to cap the scoring barrage. When the dust settled, the Scarlet Knights sent 12 batters to the plate, pushed across seven runs on six hits and capitalized on two Bulls errors in the frame as RU opened a 9-0 advantage.
Chad Taylor hit a two-out single in the seventh and Jonathan Koscso’s ball to center field was misplayed allowing the Bulls to get their first run of the game home.
The Lang-Biserta duo was at it again in the bottom half of the seventh with Lang hugging the left-field line for a two-out double and Biserta taking a pitch the opposite way, clearing the left-field fence for his 15th home run of the season. RBI doubles from Matthews and Jayson Hernandez (Belmar, N.J.) add two more runs in the frame as the Scarlet Knights stretched their lead to 13-1.
With the comfortable lead, O’Neill handed the ball off to sophomore Nathaniel Roe (Plainfield, N.J.) and senior Kevin Lillis (Fair Haven, N.J.), who worked scoreless eighth and ninth frames, respectively to seal the win.
O’Neill scattered five hits in his career-long seven innings of work and struck out four to improve to 2-0 on the season, while Quevedo (2-1) was handed his first loss with six runs on six hits in 3.1 innings.
With Biserta’s home run on Sunday, he is now in sole possession of second place on the Rutgers single-season home runs list, seven shy of Todd Frazier’s school-record 22 blasts in 2007.
Nyisztor extended his hitting streak to 16 games and Hernandez extended his to 15 contests. Lang led RU’s 16-hit attack with four hits on the afternoon, included three doubles.
RU made several good defensive plays on the day, highlighted by a senior Dan Betteridge (Sewell, N.J.), who reached out to corral a ball deep in the hole on the left side and made a jump through to get the final out of the third inning at second on the fielder’s choice.
Rutgers will close its five-game homestand Wednesday with a 3:30 p.m. game against Lafayette.
