MACON, Ga. – Rutgers baseball put on an offensive display en route to a 23-6 series-opening win at Mercer on Friday afternoon.
The Scarlet Knights (9-7) won their sixth straight game behind 23 runs on 23 hits, which included home runs from
Jordan Sweeney,
Danny Melnick and
Ryan Lasko.
Sweeney had a career day at the dish, going 4-for-6 with 6 RBIs on a 3-run home run and two doubles, while also scoring 3 runs. In addition to Sweeney,
Josh Kuroda-Grauer (3-for-6),
Chris Brito (3-for-4) and
Evan Sleight (3-for-4) all had three-hit days.
Drew Conover went 5.0 innings on the mound and earned the victory to improve to 2-1. He gave up 5 runs on five hits, while striking out five and walking three.
Garrett French relieved him and gave up a run in the sixth inning.
Ethan Bowen (0.2 IP),
Ben Gorski (1.1 IP) and
Andrew Goldan (1.0 IP) combined to close out the game with three scoreless innings.
RU struck first in the third inning, started by an
Evan Sleight single. He went to second on a sac bunt and scored when a
Ryan Lasko single was misplayed in left field. With Lasko on second, Cam Love dropped in an RBI double into right field.
In top of the fourth, the Scarlet Knights rallied to post another 3 runs. With runners on first and third,
Jordan Sweeney doubled off the wall in right field to score a run.
Evan Sleight followed that up with a 2-run double into the right field corner to make it 5-0.
The Bears had a strong answer, loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth and bringing home 4 runs to make it 5-4.
That would be the only close moment of the game, however, as RU hung a 7-spot in the fifth to take control of the game. With two runners on and two outs,
Jordan Sweeney launched his third home run of the season, a no-doubter through the wind in left field. The Scarlet Knights proceeded to load the bases, setting the stage for Cam Love, who cleared the bases with a double into the right field corner. An RBI single from
Josh Kuroda-Grauer scored the 7th run of the frame and made it 12-4.
The offensive onslaught continued in the top of the sixth when
Danny Melnick hit a 2-run home run, his first as a Scarlet Knight.
RU added another 4 in the eighth, which included a 2-run home run from Lasko. The final exclamation point was a 5-spot in the ninth, which featured an RBI single from
Jason Shockley, his first hit of the year, as well as an RBI bases-loaded walk from
Isaiah Pinkney, the first RBI of his young career.
When it was all said and done, Rutgers put up 23 runs, a season-high and the most since RU put the same number of runs up against Lafayette last season.
Rutgers will play game two of its series against Mercer at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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