PISCATAWAY, N.J. (April 20, 2022) – The No. 8 Rutgers baseball team's 16-game winning streak came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, as the Scarlet Knights dropped a close 9-7 contest to Princeton. After falling behind 6-0, RU came all the way back to take a 7-6 lead, but the Tigers rallied with a solo home run in the eighth and 2-run double in the ninth to come out on top.

"Today, we just didn't have enough," head coach Steve Owens said. "We had to get a couple more outs in the eighth to see what happened and we didn't get it done."

After a 2-run home run in the top of the first, Princeton scored 4 more in the top of the second to jump out to a quick 6-0 lead. 

Rutgers would start its comeback in the bottom of the third when Ryan Lasko led things off with a solo home run (8). 

In the bottom of the fourth, the Scarlet Knights would break out for 6 runs to take the lead. After Josh Kuroda-Grauer led off with a double, he would score on a error after a Jordan Sweeney single. 

After a balk made it 6-3, Tony Santa Maria jumped on the first pitch he saw with the bases loaded, lacing a double into the right-center gap to score two runs and make it a 6-5 game. Up next was Chris Brito, who barely missed a home run and settled for a 2-run double to the deepest part of left-center that gave RU a 7-6 lead. 

Parker Scott gave his team a career outing, completely shutting down the Tigers for the next 4+ innings. Scott struck out the first six batter he faced and would finish with 4.1 scoreless innings, yielding just one hit and one walk, while striking out eight.

Rutgers would need another late inning rally, as Princeton's Nick DiPietrantonio clubbed a solo home run in the top of the eighth to tie the game at 7-7. RU couldn't get anything done in the bottom of the eighth and Matt Scannell would hit a 2-run double for the Tigers in the top of the ninth to give them the lead. 

The Scarlet Knights were unable to score in the ninth and dropped their first contest since March 25th.

Rutgers now sits at 31-7 overall and 11-1 in the Big Ten heading into the weekend.
 

UP NEXT

Rutgers will host Iowa for a three-game series at Bainton Field, with the first game taking place at 2:00 p.m. on Friday.
 
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