No. 3 Miami Holds Off Baseball on Opening Day, 2-1

Friday, February 14

Coral Gables, Fla.

7:00 PM

Rutgers University

0-1

Miami

1-0

Rutgers

Miami (FL)

No. 3 Miami Holds Off Baseball on Opening Day, 2-1

Feb 14 | Baseball

Box Score Statistics

Rutkowski, Muller and Reardon combine to contain Hurricanes to two runs

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Sophomore Chris Brito blasted a solo home run off the batter's eye in centerfield in the top of the eighth to cut Rutgers baseball's (0-1) deficit to 2-1, but No. 3 Miami (1-0) held from there to claim a one-run win on Opening Night Friday at Alex Rodriguez Park. It was the first game for the Scarlet Knights under head coach Steve Owens.

"I thought we did a lot of things very well," Owens said. "We got a good start from Harry, who wasn't at his best today, but gutted through. He did a super job like he always does in giving us a chance to win. And then Kyle Muller was awesome out of the pen, even with a couple of defensive drops, he worked out of it to keep the game where it was. Reardon came in and did his job. It was outstanding pitching for day one.

"Offensively, their pitching is really good, but we had some opportunities and didn't capitalize. We didn't do a good enough job of getting our swings off and hitting deep in counts."

Junior Harry Rutkowski (0-1) worked five innings in his season debut with five strikeouts. The left-hander allowed only five singles and one walk, with two runs scoring against on a two-out single in the third inning. It was his 28^th career start.

"I felt pretty good out there, really loose, but couldn't get connected on some of my pitches," Rutkowski said. "I want to improve my flow going forward. As a pitching staff, we have to keep attacking the zone."

Redshirt junior Kyle Muller followed in relief with 2.1 scoreless innings. That included escaping a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. In the eighth, senior Eric Reardon stranded an inherited runner in scoring position by fanning a pair.

Offensively, Brito crushed his fourth career homer, a laser to dead center. He also singled, being the only player in the game with multiple hits. Junior Sam Owens and sophomore Victor Valderrama also reached twice by both singling and walking.

Brian Van Belle (1-0) earned the win for the Hurricanes by tossing six shutout frames with a career-high 10 strikeouts and no walks. Daniel Federman recorded the final four outs for the save.

SCORING

The Hurricanes used a two-out, two-run single by Adrian Del Castillo to take a 2-0 lead in the third.
Brito slugged a leadoff homer in the eighth to make it 2-1. Valderrama then walked with one out and moved to second with two down when junior Mike Nyisztor was hit by pitch. However, Federman escaped by inducing a groundout.

NOTES

The two runs permitted were the least allowed in the first game of the season since a 2-1 loss at Miami in 2011.
Owens and sophomore Richie Schiekofer both made their Rutgers debut.
RU caught three runners stealing defensively, twice on a pickoff move by Rutkowski and relay throw from Brito to second and another time on a throw to second by sophomore Peter Serruto.
The three RU pitchers combined to hold UM, who averaged 3.34 extra-base hits per game in 2019, to one extra-base hit.
The teams combined to hit 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position, Rutgers at 0-for-5 and Miami at 1-for-8.

UP NEXT

Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 7 p.m. Fifth-year senior Tommy Genuario is set to make the start on the mound for the Scarlet Knights. Watch online via ACCNX or listen on ScarletKnights.com.

BRITO BOMB! The first baseman blasts a solo homer off the batter's eye in center.

T8 | Miami 2, Rutgers 1 pic.twitter.com/FSFMl91FqV
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) February 15, 2020

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