Baseball Falls to Washington State

Saturday, February 29

Peoria, Ariz. / Peoria Sports Complex - Mariners Field #2

8:30 PM

Rutgers University

4-5

Washington State

5-5

Rutgers

Washington State

Photo by: Ben Solomon/Rutgers Athletics

Feb 29 | Baseball

Box Score Statistics

Scarlet Knights look to salvage Sunday’s series finale

PEORIA, Ariz. – Rutgers baseball (4-5) dropped the second game of its series against Washington State (5-5) by the score of 10-2 Saturday at the Peoria Sports Complex.

"We had an opportunity to win the game in the second inning, but mustered only one run and left the bases loaded," head coach Steve Owens said. "We ended up stranding eight runners on bases tonight. Had many chances to push across runs and didn't. Our hitters did a good job of getting things going, but a poor job of getting guys in. We are striking out way too much in key situations. And we are not pitching well. The second day in a row we didn't throw enough strikes. Again, the game was in the balance early. We had a really good starting pitcher on the ropes, made him throw 50 pitches in the first two innings and scored only once. He settled in and made pitches. We couldn't capitalize. We have to do a better job tomorrow if we want to win."

The Scarlet Knights totaled eight hits on the night, with redshirt sophomore Tim Dezzi recording two for his second-straight game. Junior Sam Owens also reached multiple times on a walk and a single, while senior Kevin Welsh recorded his fifth RBI of the week on a single. In addition, freshman Grant Shulman hit a pinch-hit triple and scored on a wild pitch. However, RU was held to 1-for-7 scoring a runner from third with less than two outs on the night.

A.J. Block (1-1) earned the win for the Cougars with 10 strikeouts over six innings, allowing one run and two walks in the start. WSU used 11 hits offensively, including a grand slam by Justin Van De Brake. Fifth-year senior Tommy Genuario (1-2) took the loss for RU.

Defensively, junior Peter Serruto caught two runners stealing from behind the plate. He has nabbed 5-of-7 attempts so far this season.

SCORING

The Scarlet Knights scored first for the sixth-straight game with a run in the second. Junior Mike Nyisztor led off with a single before moving to third on a single by Dezzi. Following a strikeout and then a walk drawn by Serruto to load the bases, Welsh connected for an RBI single to shortstop.
The Cougars matched the run in their half of the second on a two-out RBI single by Tyler Lasch.
In the third, two walks and a single preceded Van De Brake's grand slam to left that gave Washington State a 5-1 lead.
WSU tacked on an unearned run in the sixth.
RU cut it to 6-2 in the seventh when Shulman laced a pinch-hit triple to right-center and scored on a pitch back to the screen.
Washington State added two in the seventh and eighth to build a 10-2 advantage.

UP NEXT

The series finale is set for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET (10:30 local) at the Peoria Sports Complex.

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