PEORIA, Ariz. – Rutgers baseball (5-5) scored two quick runs the first inning and never trailed from there in a 6-1 Sunday win over Washington State (5-6) at the Peoria Sports Complex, the spring training home of the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners. It was the Scarlet Knights' first victory in program history over a PAC-12 opponent.
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"It was a good win for us come back after not playing well the last two days," head coach
Steve Owens said. "This was a good ending to the week, finishing 2-2. We are now at .500 through three weeks after playing some good teams. We'll take the positives from that and continue to build."
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Senior
Tevin Murray (2-1) provided 5.2 innings in the start, allowing only two hits and one unearned run to pick up the win. The left-hander struck out five and retired 12 batters in a row through the middle innings. Sophomore
Parker Scott came on in relief in the sixth with bases loaded and two outs, holding a two-run lead, and rung up a called strikeout to strand all three inherited runners. He finished the game with 3.1 scoreless innings to earn his second save.
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"Tevin got going again today," Owens said. "He had some counts where he was behind early, but found it and got us into the sixth inning. That was exactly what we needed. He only gave up two hits, did a great job. Parker then came in and attack the zone with all of his pitches. And defensively, we made a bunch of plays. I thought we played clean baseball."
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Offensively, the Scarlet Knights recorded seven hits, seven walks and drew three hit by pitches. Redshirt sophomore T
im Dezzi notched his third-straight game with two hits, adding a walk to reach three times. Senior
Kevin Welsh also had two hits, including one on suicide squeeze that went as a bunt single. In addition, redshirt sophomore
Richie Schiekofer knocked in two.
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"We got off to a good start," Owens said. "It's important for us to be ready to play right away."
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Ethan Ross (0-2) took the loss for Washington State with three runs allowed in a 1.2-inning start.
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- The Scarlet Knights scored first for the seventh-straight game with two quick runs in the first. Junior Mike Nyisztor led off the game with a single and moved to third on an errant pickoff attempt. Batting second, Dezzi connected for an RBI double. Schiekofer followed with an RBI single up the middle to make it 2-0 right away.
- RU added another in the third to build a 3-0 lead. Welsh led off with a single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Andy Axelson. Both Nyisztor and Dezzi walked with two outs, with Schiekofer being hit by a pitch to force in Welsh.
- The Cougars played an unearned run on a sacrifice fly in the second.
- The game stayed 3-1 until Rutgers tacked on three insurance runs in the seventh. Dezzi led off with a single, with sophomore Chris Brito walking with one out. Redshirt junior Danny DiGeorgio was hit by a pitch to load the bases for junior Sam Owens, who fell behind 0-2, but worked the count full before being hit a pitch to bring in Dezzi. A wild pitch allowed Brito to score. Next, Welsh executed a suicide squeeze with DiGeorgio coming in from third to make it 6-1.
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The Scarlet Knights are back on the road Tuesday to face St. Joseph's at 2:30 p.m.
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