Rutgers University
12-10, 2-3
Illinois
12-9, 4-4
Baseball Loses Game Two at Illinois
Mar 21 | Baseball
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Rutgers baseball dropped game two at Illinois by a score of 12-6 on Saturday afternoon at Illinois Field.
The Scarlet Knights (12-10, 2-3) once again fell behind early and were unable to complete a big comeback against the Fighting Illini (12-9, 4-4), who clinched the series with the win.
Illinois jumped ahead in the third on a grand slam and RBI double to take a 5-0 lead.
While RU responded with a run in the fourth on an RBI single from Matt Chatelle, but the Fighting Illini countered with an RBI single in the fourth and three-run homer in the fifth to make it 9-1.
The Scarlet Knights kept chipping away with an RBI double from Ryan Jaros in the sixth and RBI single from Peyton Bonds in the seventh. Later in the seventh, Charlie Meglio added a two-run home run to make it 9-6. It was his team-best sixth of the season and he has now homered in three straight games.
Illinois put things away with three in the bottom half to extend the lead to 12-5. Despite a late RBI single from Joey Erace to make it 12-6, that was all from the RU offense on the day.
The series finale between Rutgers and Illinois is set for 2 p.m. ET on Sunday afternoon.
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Regan Hall (3-2)
L: Konstantinovsky, Zack (3-2)
Batting:
2B: Bonds, Peyton 1 ; Jaros, Ryan 1 ; Erace, Joey 1
HR: Meglio, Charlie 1
RBI: Bonds, Peyton 1 ; Meglio, Charlie 2 ; Chatelle, Matt 1 ; Jaros, Ryan 1 ; Erace, Joey 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Wells, Trey 2 ; Meglio, Charlie 1 ; Chatelle, Matt 1 ; Carreras, Yomar 1 ; Erace, Joey 1
HBP: Bonds, Peyton 1
Batting:
2B: Jack Zebig 1 ; AJ Putty 1 ; Daniel Contreras 1 ; J.R. Nelson 1
HR: Nick Groves 1 ; Jack Zebig 1 ; J.R. Nelson 1
RBI: Nick Groves 3 ; Michael Farina 1 ; Jack Zebig 6 ; Daniel Contreras 1 ; J.R. Nelson 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nick Groves 3 ; Michael Farina 2 ; Jack Zebig 1 ; Kyle Schupmann 1 ; Cole Crafton 1 ; J.R. Nelson 4
CS: Kyle Schupmann 1
