STATESBORO, Ga. – Rutgers baseball made history on Saturday night, as
Jake Marshall and
Ben Gorski combined to throw just the seventh no-hitter in program history and the first 9-inning no-hitter since Gary Malinoski in 1978.
The no-hitter helped the Scarlet Knights defeat Georgia Southern 7-0 to sweep the series against the Eagles in Statesboro.
"Their stuff was good, there were a lot of strikeouts and then a lot of good defensive plays behind them," head coach
Steve Owens said. "Those pitchers hung out there and did a good job. They pitched out of a couple jams with a big double play in the first inning and then some strikeouts after that. I'm very pleased with their resiliency and how we passed the ball along all weekend."
Jake Marshall started the game and threw 5.0 shutout innings, striking out nine batters and walking seven.
Ben Gorski entered in the sixth inning and shut down the Eagles the rest of the way, going 4.0 innings, striking out seven and walking two on 60 pitches.
The 16 combined strikeouts between Marshall and Gorski tie last season's mark against Omaha as the highest for Rutgers since joining the Big Ten.
On the offensive end, RU got out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning on a sac fly from
Jordan Sweeney and RBI single from
Andy Axelson. The Scarlet Knights doubled their lead in the third when
Chris Brito launched his team-leading third home run of the season, a 2-run shot that made it 4-0.
Brito added 2 more runs with a single in the fifth and
Hugh Pinkney rounded out the RU scoring with an RBI single in the seventh.
"It's great to get clicking on all cylinders," Owens said. "It's good to start feeling good about some of the execution that's happening on the field. It's nice to see our players with a smile on their face. they played really well this weekend, so we'll enjoy it and try to build on it."
Rutgers continues its spring break trip to Georgia with a midweek contest at Kennesaw State on Wednesday night before heading to Macon for a three-game series at Mercer.
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