EVANSTON, Ill. – Rutgers baseball used a complete effort to defeat Northwestern 7-1 in dominant fashion on Friday afternoon's Big Ten series opener in Evanston.
The Scarlet Knights (21-16, 5-5) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, taking care of the Wildcats (6-26, 3-7) in dominant fashion.
The RU offense wasted no time getting to work, with
Josh Kuroda-Grauer leading off the game with a double. With two outs,
Chris Brito drove him in with a double of his own, a hit which was career number 200 for Brito.
Christian Coppola was dialed in on the mound for Rutgers, picking up a strikeout in a quick 1-2-3 first.
After the teams traded zeroes for the next three innings, Brito gave the Scarlet Knights breathing room in the fifth. He launched a laser over the left field wall for a two-run shot to make it 3-0, his eighth big fly of the season. Later in the frame, Kuroda-Grauer walked with the bases loaded to make it 4-0.
The Wildcats scratched across a run in the fifth on an infield single with two outs, but Coppola limited the damage to the lone run.
In the top of the sixth,
Evan Sleight launched his team-best 10th home run of the season, scoring
Ryan Lasko and making it 6-1. While Northwestern was able to load the bases with one out in the bottom half, Coppola got a strikeout and groundout to end the frame with no damage.
Coppola's day was finished after the sixth and he delivered his second straight quality start for RU. He threw 6.0 innings, allowing one run on five hits, while striking out five and walking a pair. He earned the win to improve to 3-3 with a 2.97 ERA on the season.
Brito continued his monster game in the eighth, as he launched his second home run of the game and ninth of the season to extend the RU lead to 7-1.
Sam Portnoy entered in relief for the seventh and closed out the game with a nine-out save. Portnoy did not allow a hit in his three scoreless innings of relief, striking out one Wildcat to earn the first save of his career.
Game two between Rutgers and Northwestern is set for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.
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