PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball (11-19, 3-4) used early offense and another effective Friday start from sophomore
Harry Rutkowski to beat Michigan State (8-23, 0-6), 4-2, in the series opener at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights won their third-straight game and have topped the Spartans in three of the last four meetings.
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"It was extremely important to start this homestand with a win," head coach
Joe Litterio said. "Harry pitched a great game and the guys came out of the pen and did their job. At the plate, we were able to have a good approach with two strikes, which was great to see."
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Rutkowski struck out six over six innings with two runs allowed. The left-hander started his outing retiring the first eight batters and did not permit a run until the sixth. He lowered his ERA to 3.23 and picked up his sixth quality start of the season. Junior
Steven Acosta, freshman
Garrett French and senior
Serafino Brito all logged a scoreless frame in relief. For Brito, he recorded his fifth save of the season with two strikeouts in a perfect ninth.
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Offensively, RU ran out to a 3-0 lead after four innings and added an insurance run in the eighth. Three of the runs scored with two outs. Sophomore
Mike Nyisztor and junior
Kevin Blum each had two hits, with senior
Luke Bowerbank also reaching twice on a single and a walk. Blum, senior
Tyler McNamara, freshman
Peter Serruto and freshman
David Soto all knocked in one run.
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The Scarlet Knights did not commit an error for the second-straight game.
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SCORING
- The Scarlet Knights jumped ahead with a run in the first. Nyisztor led off with a single, advanced on an error and later scored on an RBI single by McNamara.
- RU made it 3-0 with a pair of two-out RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth. Bowerbank started the rally with a one-out walk and moved up on a groundout. Soto then connected on a run-scoring single to left field. He quickly stole second and scored on Blum's second hit of the game, a single through the right side.
- The Spartans scored for the first time in the sixth on a one-out single. Soto prevented anything further, stranding two on base with a diving force out up the middle.
- In the seventh, an RBI infield single by Michigan State made it 3-2. Acosta left the tying run at third base to keep the lead.
- Rutgers added an insurance run in the eighth when freshman Victor Valderrama was hit by a pitch with two outs, moved up on a Bowerbank single and scored on an RBI single by Serruto.
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NOTES
- Rutgers is now 5-2 in its last seven games and 5-2 at Bainton Field this season.
- RU hit 6-for-13 with two outs compared to 2-for-11 by MSU.
- Brito is now sixth in school history with 75 career pitching appearances and tied for 10th with 10 career saves, matching Ryan Molchan (1999-02).
- Acosta has pitched in eight of the last nine games.
- The defense played its seventh game of the season without an error.
- It was the eighth time this season the Scarlet Knights held an opponent to two runs or less.
- Mason Erla, who went nine scoreless innings last week versus Indiana State, took the loss with three runs permitted in 6.1 innings for Michigan State.
- The game-time temperature was 64 degrees and the contest lasted two hours, 27 minutes.
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UP NEXT
Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 1 p.m. Junior
Tommy Genuario will start on the mound for the Scarlet Knights.
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"We have to come out tomorrow like today didn't happen," Litterio said. "It's good to get that first one, but now it's over. There are still two games left in this series. Hopefully Tommy comes out tomorrow competing in the zone and we score some early runs."
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