PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball dominated UConn on Friday to secure the weekend series, winning 13-6 under the lights of Bainton Field. 

The Scarlet Knights (17-6) took a 4-0 lead in the second inning and never looked back in the wire-to-wire triumph over the Huskies (8-13).

While RU got a pair of walks in the first innings, a pair of strikeouts stranded runners on base. The Scarlet Knights had no issues getting men in the next innings, scoring four runs with two outs. 

Jackson Natili started the rally with a two-out single. Cameron Love followed with a run-scoring double on a fly ball to left that found open turf and bounced past the UConn outfield. RJ Johnson Jr. brought home Love with a rocket into the right-center gap that made it 2-0. Trevor Cohen delivered the big blow of the inning with his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to left field to extend the RU lead to 4-0. 

While the Huskies responded with a two-run homer of their own in the third, Rutgers starter Christian Coppola got back-to-back strikeouts to end the frame. 

RU immediately got the two runs back in the bottom half on a two-run home run from Natili – the first of his career. The freshmen continued to pour it on for Rutgers, as Doucette singled in two more with the bases loaded in the fourth to make it 8-2. 

Despite a two-out RBI single for the Huskies in the fifth, the RU offense kept answering, as the Scarlet Knights would wind up scoring multiple runs in five of the eight innings they came to bat. Durocher and Doucette each singled in a run in the sixth, while Natili drove in one and Johnson Jr. drove in two more in the eighth. When it was all said and done, the Rutgers lineup had posted 13 runs on another 14 hits to keep the Huskies in the rearview mirror all night. 

Coppola earned the win to improve to 4-1 on the season, going 5.2 innings and allowing three runs on five hits, striking out six and walking just two, pushing himself to 105 pitches before exiting with two outs in the sixth. 

Jake Marshall relieved him to get the final out of the sixth and ultimately finish off the game with the last 3.1 innings to earn his third save. It was the fourth time this season that Coppola and Marshall combined to throw every inning of a game, joining the series openers at Winthrop, Old Dominion and Charleston Southern. 

Rutgers will go for the sweep over UConn on Sunday with a new first pitch time of 2 p.m. at Bainton Field.

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