Rutgers University
5-4
Western Carolina
7-3
Baseball Slugs Six Home Runs in Win Over Western Carolina
Feb 28 | Baseball
GREENVILLE, N.C. – Rutgers baseball used a dominant start from Zack Konstantinovsky and six home runs to defeat Western Carolina by a score of 9-3 Saturday at Clark-LeClair Stadium.
The Scarlet Knights (5-4) took an early lead in the second inning and kept adding on in the middle innings to race past the Catamounts (7-3) and earn the victory.
RU's six home runs were the most since it also hit six in 2022 against Wagner. Each of the six home runs were hit by a different player.
Konstantinovsky was dominant from the get-go, striking out the first batter of the game to set the tone for the longest outing of his career. He finished the day with a career-best seven innings, allowing no runs on just one hit and striking out six with one walk.
The scoring barrage for RU started in the second, when true freshman Joey Erace launched a two-run homer – the first of his career – to make it a 2-0 game early.
Yomar Carreras hit a solo homer in the fourth, followed by a two-run shot from Peyton Bonds, a solo shot from Chase Krewson and another solo homer from Trey Wells in the fifth, making it 7-0. Tristan Salinas added a two-run homer just inside the foul pole in left field in the seventh to give Rutgers a 9-0 advantage.
Bonds and Krewson's home runs were back-to-back, the first such occurrence for the Scarlet Knights since Johnny Volpe and Josh Kuroda-Grauer went back-to-back at Indiana in 2024.
While Western Carolina added three in the eighth, it was not enough as RU wrapped up the win to improve to 5-4 on the season.
Notes
- Zack Konstantinovsky set a career high in innings pitched (7.0)
- Joey Erace hit his first career home run
- Last time Rutgers hit six home runs: Six vs. Wagner (3/8/22)
- Last time two Scarlet Knights hit back-to-back home runs: Johnny Volpe/Josh Kuroda-Grauer at Indiana (4/28/24)
Rutgers wraps up the weekend at the Keith LeClair Classic tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. against Troy. RU will be the home team in the neutral site contest
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Konstantinovsky, Zack (2-0)
L: Burnette, Carter (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Salinas, Tristan 1
HR: Wells, Trey 1 ; Krewson, Chase 1 ; Erace, Joey 1 ; Carreras, Yomar 1 ; Bonds, Peyton 1 ; Salinas, Tristan 1
RBI: Wells, Trey 1 ; Krewson, Chase 1 ; Erace, Joey 2 ; Carreras, Yomar 1 ; Bonds, Peyton 2 ; Salinas, Tristan 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Wells, Trey 1 ; Krewson, Chase 1 ; Erace, Joey 2 ; Carreras, Yomar 2 ; Bonds, Peyton 1 ; Salinas, Tristan 2
HBP: Jaros, Ryan 1
Batting:
2B: Lyda, Jackson 1
HR: Spees, Trey 1
RBI: Spees, Trey 3
Base Running:
RUNS: Sikes, Yates 1 ; Lyda, Jackson 1 ; Spees, Trey 1
HBP: Sikes, Yates 1
