Box Score

PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Senior Howie Brey (Middletown, N.J.) pitched his fifth career complete game to lead Rutgers baseball a 7-1 win over Indiana Friday at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights earned their first Big Ten victory of the season and improved to 4-0 at home overall.

Making his first home start of the year, Brey (2-3) struck out a season-high eight batters and walked none in a 118-pitch outing. The left-hander scattered seven hits, but stranded six Indiana runners on base. His previous complete game was his final start at Bainton Field last season, beating then-No. 13 Iowa.



At the plate, Rutgers (10-15, 1-3) put together two scoring rallies and collected 11 hits in the game. Junior Christian Campbell (Sayreville, N.J.) recorded two RBI doubles, while sophomore Milo Freeman (Millburn, N.J.) singled twice and drove in two runs. In addition, senior R.J. Devish (Beachwood, N.J.) reached three times to raise his season on-base percentage to a Big Ten-leading .532 and junior Gaby Rosa (Perth Amboy, N.J.) added two RBIs. RU went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Indiana (12-12, 0-1) jumped out with a two-out run in the third, but Rutgers responded with four in the fourth to claim a 4-1 lead. Fifth-year senior Chris Suseck (Flemington, N.J.) started the rally with a single, with junior Tom Marcinczyk (Middlesex, N.J.) walking and freshman Jawuan Harris (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) singling to load the bases. Freshman Nick Matera (Roxbury, N.J.) drove in the first run with a sacrifice fly and Freeman knocked in another with an RBI groundout. Then with two down, Campbell and Rosa both came through with run-scoring hits to cap the outburst.

Brey would take command from there, mixing his pitches to keep the Hoosiers off balance. In the sixth, he induced a ground ball double play to wipe out a leadoff single.

RU tacked on three runs in the bottom of the eighth to expand the lead to six. With one out, Harris walked and stole both second and third to bring his season total to 21 swipes. Matera earned a walk to put runners at the corners and Freeman rocketed an RBI single to score Harris. It was not done there, as Campbell connected for another RBI double and Rosa knocked in the final run on a groundout.

Brey retired the first two in the ninth, closing the game two batters later when Freeman snared a liner over at third base.

Kyle Hart (5-2) took the loss for IU with four runs permitted over six innings, while Laren Eustace had two of the team's seven hits. It was the first trip to Bainton Field for the Hoosiers.

The Scarlet Knights will look for the series win Saturday with a doubleheader scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m. Redshirt junior Kyle Driscoll (Toms River, N.J.) and sophomore John O'Reilly (Northvale, N.J.) are scheduled to pitch for Rutgers.

NOTES
Rutgers earned its first win over Indiana in the sixth game of the all-time series … the Scarlet Knights have won 10 of their last 11 games at Bainton Field dating back to last season … the offense is averaging 12.75 runs per home game with a batting average of .407 … head coach Joe Litterio collected his 299th career victory … Brey is now eighth in school history with 239.1 career innings pitched and tied for eighth with 163 strikeouts … RU has seven wins this season by five or more runs … the offense has reached double-digit hits nine times … the defense played errorless baseball for the fourth time this year … Harris has five games with multiple stolen bases this season and seven steals over his last four games … the game lasted two hours, 24 minutes … the attendance was 206.

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