PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball picked up its first Big Ten win of the season on Sunday, defeating Michigan State 10-5 at Bainton Field.
The Scarlet Knights (14-13, 1-2) slugged four home runs on the day, including two from
Evan Sleight, to overpower the Spartans (16-9, 4-2) in the series finale.
The two teams traded runs in the early part of the game, with a
Hugh Pinkney RBI double and
Jordan Sweeney home run posting a pair of runs to make it 2-2 after five innings.
Rutgers broke it open against the MSU bullpen starting with the first pitch of the sixth inning.
Josh Kuroda-Grauer put the first pitch he saw over the wall in left field to make it 3-2. Just two pitches later, Sleight blasted a solo home run of his own to right field, making it 4-2 in the blink of an eye.
The Scarlet Knights continued the offensive surge in the seventh, starting with RBI single off the bat of
Trevor Cohen. Two batters later, Sleight unloaded for his second home run of the day, this one a no-doubter that scored a trio of runs and pushed the score to 8-2.
While the Spartans would get back 3 runs with a home run in the top of the eighth,
Ryan Lasko drove in a pair with a single to make it 10-5 going into the ninth.
Garrett French pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the victory and end the weekend on a high note for RU.
Ben Gorski earned the win, pitching 2.2 scoreless innings of relief with two strikeouts.
Rutgers returns to action on Tuesday afternoon, hosting Hofstra at 3 p.m. in its lone midweek game before a weekend series at Maryland.
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