PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Led by a career-high 12 strikeouts over eight scoreless innings from sophomore
Harry Rutkowski, Rutgers baseball (14-20, 6-4) blanked Purdue (12-24, 5-7) in a 2-0 Friday victory at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights won their fifth-straight Big Ten game and have taken six of their last seven overall.
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"Harry has been pitching great all year and continued that today," head coach
Joe Litterio said. "He kept guys off balance and had command of his curveball, the right-handed hitters were swinging over it. He was able to make big pitches in big spots all day."
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Rutkowski's eight innings were a season high and the 12 strikeouts were the most by a Scarlet Knight since Charlie Law racked up a dozen on March 10, 2013 at William & Mary. The number was last achieved at Bainton Field by Rob Smorol on April 16, 2011 versus Cincinnati. In addition, it was the first double-digit strikeout performance since Howie Brey totaled 10 in a victory at Maryland on May 13, 2016.
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Rutkowski surrendered six hits, two walks and a hit by pitch, but held the Boilermakers to 1-for-13 with runners on and 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The left-hander recorded his third career start with no earned runs allowed to lower his season ERA to 2.83 and 3.25 against the league.
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Also blanking Michigan State, 8-0, last Sunday, RU pitched back-to-back conference shutouts for the first time since March 2013 at Villanova to lower the team ERA in the Big Ten to 2.62. Today marked the fourth Big Ten shutout for Rutgers since joining in 2015.
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Senior
Serafino Brito faced the minimum in the ninth inning, ending the game on the double play, to earn his seventh save of the season, which ranks ninth in school history. His 12 career saves match Jim Kohl (1988-91) for sixth in the program record books.
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Offensively, the Scarlet Knights collected seven hits and drew two walks. Senior
Tyler McNamara and junior
Kevin Welsh both went 2-for-4, while junior
Kevin Blum and senior
Carmen Sclafani each knocked in a run.
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Andrew Bohm went 6.2 innings for Purdue and struck out five, with Conner Tomasic recording the last four outs. Cole McKenzie had three of the Boilermaker's seven hits. Purdue left nine runners on base.
SCORING
In the second inning, Purdue laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third with one out. However, Rutkowski struck out the next two hitters to escape. The Scarlet Knights then had a similar situation in the bottom of the inning. Freshman
Victor Valderrama and senior
Luke Bowerbank both singled, with freshman
David Soto executing a sacrifice bunt. Blum then put the ball in play for an RBI groundout to shortstop to put RU on top, 1-0.
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Rutkowski retired a stretch of eight-straight hitters from the fifth until the eighth, including striking out the side in the sixth. The Boilermakers put two on with two outs in the eighth, but a strikeout ended the inning to preserve the one-run advantage.
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The Scarlet Knights tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth. Welsh and McNamara both singled to put runners at the corners with no outs for Sclafani, who hit a fielder's choice to second base to make it 2-0.
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NOTES
