TAMPA, Fla. (April 8, 2011) – South Florida broke a 1-1 tie with a walk-off single in the 13th inning to defeat the Rutgers baseball team in a classic pitcher’s duel Friday night in the series opener at USF Baseball Stadium.
Sophomore starter Tyler Gebler (Toms River, N.J.) struck out a career-high six batters without a walk and allowed just four hits in 7.2 innings of one-run ball for the Scarlet Knights (11-17, 3-4 BIG EAST). His counterpart, Randy Fontanez, struck out 10 and did not allow an earned run on three hits in eight innings of work for the Bulls (14-15, 4-3 BIG EAST).
Rutgers threatened in each of the first two innings as freshman Nick Favatella (Washington Twp., N.J.) singled and advanced to third base in the first and sophomore Steve Zavala (Randolph, N.J.) singled and advanced to third base in the second inning. The Scarlet Knights, however, could not push across a run early in the stalemate.
RU finally broke through in the fifth inning as sophomore Bill Hoermann (Toms River, N.J.) doubled down the line in left to open the frame and scored on the next play as fellow sophomore Pat Sweeney (Sparta, N.J.) hit a ball to the right side that was mishandled by the second baseman to put Rutgers on the board in the contest.
The Scarlet Knights looked for a two-run cushion in the sixth as freshman Michael Zavala (Randolph, N.J.) earned a five-pitch with one-out and later stole second where the throw was wild to the base to allow the runner to advance to third on the play with two outs. Fontanez prevented the run from scoring, however, with an inning-ending strikeout.
Gebler retired the first six batters of the game in order and cruised into the sixth, getting a fly out to open the frame. He posted his third strikeout of the night, getting Jonathan Koscso to swing at a wild pitch for strike three in the inning. The ball got away, however and Koscso reached base on the wild pitch. The play proved to loom large for RU as Junior Carlin followed with a double to the gap in left-center field, allowing Kosco to come around to score on the play and tie the game at 1-1. Carlin was tagged out on the play at second base for the second out of the inning and Gebler prevented any further runs with an inning-ending strikeout.
The Scarlet Knight sophomore starter retired the side in order in the seventh with two more strikeouts in the frame.
The Bulls put a pair of runners on with two outs in the eighth and Rutgers made the call to its bullpen for the first time in the contest with sophomore Rob Corsi (Oceanport, N.J.) coming in. A Carlin infield single loaded the bases and RU made another call to the bullpen to bring in closer Jerry Elsing (Toms River, N.J.), who induced an inning-ending fly out to get out of the inning unscathed.
Elsing retired the side in order in the ninth to send Rutgers to its fifth extra-inning affair of the season.
The Bulls put the go-ahead run on third with two outs in the 10th before sophomore Dan O’Neill (Garfield, N.J.) came in and got a groundout to end the inning.
The Scarlet Knights and Bulls played two more innings of scoreless extra frames before the game was decided in the bottom of the 13th inning.
USF’s Todd Brazeal drew a five-pitch walk with one out in the 13th and Alex Mendez came in to pitch run for him at first base. O’Neill struck out the next batter for the second out of the frame as Mendez stole second on the play. James Ramsey then took the second pitch of his at-bat back up the middle to bring Mendez home for the game-winning score.
Reliever Jimmy Moran (2-0) picked up the win with an inning of scoreless relief in the 13th, while O’Neill (1-2) suffered the loss after surrendering the run in the frame. The Scarlet Knight reliever worked three innings of relief, allowing just two hits.
Rutgers and USF will continue the series tomorrow with a 7 p.m. game at USF Baseball Stadium. Sophomore lefty Rob Smorol (Clark, N.J.) will be on the mound for the Scarlet Knights against senior righty Kyle Eastham for the Bulls.
