NEWARK, Del. – Rutgers baseball rode a big day from its offense to defeat Delaware 15-10 in a high-scoring affair at Bob Hannah Stadium on Friday evening. 

The Scarlet Knights (11-6) erased an early 3-1 deficit and scored in each of the last four innings to overpower the Blue Hens (8-8) in the series opener. 

In what was a back-and-forth contest, Delaware struck first with two runs in the first inning on a sac fly and RBI single. RU responded in the second on a wild pitch, but the Blue Hens hit a solo homer in the bottom half to take a 3-1 lead going into the third. 

After RJ Johnson Jr. led off the third with a hit-by-pitch, three straight RBI doubles from Trevor Cohen, Tony Santa Maria and Josh Kuroda-Grauer put RU ahead by a score of 4-3. Ty Doucette added another with an RBI single to bring home Kuroda-Grauer and push the lead to 5-3. Kuroda-Grauer continued to lead the way on offense with an RBI single in the fourth that made it 6-3. 

Delaware kept in the game with a three-spot in the bottom of the fifth on a double, throwing error and another double, deadlocking the game at 6-6. 

In the top of the sixth, Santa Maria hit his Big Ten-best seventh home run of the season, a two-run shot that scored Cohen and gave RU back an 8-6 advantage. While the Scarlet Knight got into double digits on a sac fly and double play, the Blue Hens hit three home runs between the sixth and seventh innings to eventually tie the game at 10-10 heading into the eighth. 

After a Santa Maria walk and Kuroda-Grauer's third double of the game, Delaware elected to intentionally walk Pete Durocher with one out to load the bases for Doucette. 

On the second pitch of the at-bat, Doucette launched a ball deep over the fence in left-center for a grand slam to put his team up 14-10. RU added insurance in the ninth on a steal of home by Johnson Jr. to make it 15-10. 

After Rutgers took the lead, Joey DeChiaro came in to pitch a scoreless eighth and ninth inning to secure the game. 

Game two between Rutgers and Delaware is set for 2 p.m. on Friday afternoon.  

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