MINNEAPOLIS – Rutgers baseball was unable to hold on to a late lead and dropped an 8-7 decision at Minnesota on Friday night at Siebert Field in Minneapolis.
The Scarlet Knights (32-21, 13-10) led 5-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, but the Golden Gophers (18-33, 10-13) scored multiple runs in each of the final three innings to win in walk-off fashion.
The RU offense was able to get out to quick lead thanks to
Josh Kuroda-Grauer, who would score three runs on the night. He led off the game with a single, stole second and scored on an error that allowed a ball to get into the outfield. Minnesota evened it up with a run on a throwing error in the bottom of the first.
The Scarlet Knights strung together more offense in the third, with Kuroda-Grauer (single) and
Ryan Lasko (walk) reaching base and executing a double-steal. A
Chris Brito groundout and
Evan Sleight sac fly brought them both home to make it 3-1.
A wild pitch scored Kuroda-Gruaer in the fourth,
Cameron Love scored on a single and error in the fifth and
Trevor Cohen singled in
Andy Axelson in the seventh, stretching the RU lead to 6-1.
The Golden Gophers used a pinch-hit double and a two-run single to get it to 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh. A solo home run from Sleight, his 12th of the season, brought the Rutgers lead to 7-4 in the eighth.
A two-run home run from Minnesota in the eighth made it 7-6 before the Golden Gophers walked it off on a two-run double with two outs in the ninth.
Drew Conover started for RU and delivered another strong outing, pitching 5.2 innings and allowing just one run on four hits, while striking out eight and walking two.
Joe Mazza relieved him to get the final out of the sixth.
Ben Gorski relieved Mazza in the seventh and would finish the game.
The series finale between Rutgers and Minnesota is set for 3 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon at Siebert Field and will be streamed via B1G+.
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