BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Rutgers baseball (20-29, 9-12) took leads of 4-2 and 5-4 in the fifth and sixth innings, but No. 21 Indiana (34-19, 15-7) answered both times to pull out a 7-5 win Thursday at Bart Kaufman Field. It was the first game of a three-game set to close the regular season.
Â
"Indiana did a nice job of coming right back at us after we took the leads," head coach
Joe Litterio said. "We couldn't get the shutdown inning. No errors on the box score officially, but we gave up an extra 90 feet a couple times. That matters in these types of games. I am proud of the way we swung the bats, just came up short tonight."
Â
Junior
Kevin Welsh highlighted the offensive production with a three-run homer, his first career long ball, in the top of the fifth that gave RU a 4-2 lead. Junior
Kevin Blum knocked in the first run for the Scarlet Knights on an RBI single, while senior
Luke Bowerbank delivered a run-scoring single that gave the team a 5-4 lead in the sixth.
Â
Sophomore
Harry Rutkowski struck out nine over 5.2 innings in his 14
th start of the year. The left-hander owns 83 strikeouts in 2019, ranked fourth in a single season in program history. Junior
Eric Reardon added a punchout to close out the sixth. Next in, junior
Steven Acosta dealt a scoreless seventh on a pair of strikeouts. Sophomore
Kyle Muller and senior
Serafino Brito teamed up to post a zero in the eighth to make it 2.1 scoreless from the bullpen on the night.
Â
The Hoosiers used 12 hits and seven walks to post seven runs, hitting 5-for-18 with runners in scoring position. The three decisive runs in the last of the sixth all came with two outs, capped by a two-run homer by Matt Lloyd for his 16
th of the season. Pauly Milto earned the win in a six-inning start, while the bullpen followed with three perfect frames. Connor Manous picked up a two-inning save.
Â
SCORING
- Indiana used a two-out, two-run double by Justin Walker to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
- Rutgers rallied for four runs on three hits in the fifth. Freshman Peter Serruto hit a leadoff double and Bowerbank entered as a pinch runner. Following a sacrifice bunt by freshman David Soto, Blum connected for an RBI single to right. Sophomore Mike Nyisztor followed with a walk, with Welsh lifting a towering three-run homer to right.
- The Hoosiers evened the game with a pair of runs in the last of the fifth.
- RU quickly went back ahead in the sixth. Senior Tyler McNamara ripped a leadoff double, freshman Victor Valderrama laid down a sacrifice bunt and Bowerbank laced an RBI single off third base.
- Indiana took a 7-5 lead with three runs with two down in the last of the sixth. Lloyd hit a two-run homer to put the home team in front.
Â
NOTES
- After one inning, the game was delayed two hours and 13 minutes due to lightning in the area.
- Brito is now one game away from matching Max Herrmann (2014-17) for second in school history with 86 career appearances.
- Acosta has pitched in 16-of-21 Big Ten games this year and is second in the program record books with 29 appearances in a single season.
- The pitching staff matched a season high with 12 strikeouts, achieving the number for the fifth time. It was the 15th game reaching double figures. The 368 strikeouts this year are fourth in the school record books.
- It was the first Big Ten meeting between Rutgers and Indiana since 2016.
- The game lasted three hours, two minutes and the game-time temperature was 78 degrees.
Â
UP NEXT
Game two of the series is set for Friday at 6 p.m. on Big Ten Network. Junior
Tevin Murray will start on the mound for the Scarlet Knights.
Â
"I look forward to Murray going out there and giving us a chance to win," Litterio said.
Follow Rutgers Athletics on
Facebook and Twitter
(@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding baseball, follow the program on Twitter (
@RutgersBaseball), Instagram
(@rutgersbaseball) and Facebook (
/BaseballRU). For additional updates, please download theÂ
Gameday App.
