PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball defeated Marist by a score of 8-3 on Wednesday night in the first night game in Bainton Field history.
The Scarlet Knights (18-15) used a grand slam from
Ryan Lasko in the second inning and seven consecutive shutout innings from the bullpen to take down the Red Foxes (5-25) in dominant fashion.
John Modugno got the start for Rutgers and pitched the opening frame, giving up a pair of runs on a sac fly and RBI double with two outs.
Sam Bello entered for the second inning and gave RU a strong effort out of the bullpen. After giving up a solo home run to the first batter he faced, Bello got the next nine outs without allowing a run and striking out two. He earned the win to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Wyatt Parliament worked a scoreless fifth inning with a strikeout to strand the bases loaded.
Ethan Bowen tossed a scoreless sixth and
Joe Mazza struck out two in a scoreless seventh.
Garrett French got the eighth inning and struck out a batter in a scoreless effort.
Ben Gorski closed out the win, striking out a batter in a 1-2-3 ninth.
After falling behind 3-0 early, Rutgers exploded for six runs to seize control of the game in the second inning. With the bases loaded,
Danny Melnick knocked a base hit into right field to score a pair of runs and bring it to 3-2. After
Trevor Cohen walked to load the bases,
Ryan Lasko hit a towering grand slam to dead-center field, making the game 6-3 and giving RU all the momentum.
The Rutgers bullpen continued to post zeroes, while the offense added an insurance run in the fifth to make it 7-3.
Josh Kuroda-Grauer walked to lead off the eighth and would come around to score after an error and double play, giving RU an 8-3 lead that would go final.
Rutgers now shifts its attention to a big weekend at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights will host Michigan for a three-game series over the weekend, starting with the Blackout Game at 6 p.m. on Friday night.
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