Baseball Drops Season Finale at No. 21 Indiana

Saturday, May 18

Bloomington, Ind.

12:00 PM

Rutgers University

20-31, 9-14

Indiana

36-19, 17-7

Rutgers

Indiana

Photo by: Mark Brown

May 18 | Baseball

Box Score Statistics

Welsh homers for third-straight day

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Rutgers baseball (20-31, 9-14) dropped its 2019 season finale, 13-3, Saturday at No. 21 Indiana (36-19, 17-7). Junior Kevin Welsh knocked in all three runs and homered for the third-straight day for the Scarlet Knights.

Indiana clinched the Big Ten regular season championship with the victory.

"It was a close game early today and they broke it open," head coach Joe Litterio said. "It was a tough situation playing a team with a title on the line, but hopefully our guys see what we're trying to build towards. We need to continue to improve and we will. A lot of ups and downs this season with a number of young guys in there. We were able to right the ship midway through, but tailed off towards the end. I want our guys returning to take this memory and let it push them in the offseason."

After sophomore Mike Nyisztor led off the game with a double, Welsh immediately gave the Scarlet Knights an early lead with an RBI single through the left side. Nyisztor then kept the fifth alive with a single and Welsh followed by blasting a two-run shot to the bullpen beyond the fence in left field. It was his first long ball from the right side after connecting as a lefty on Thursday and Friday. The last Scarlet Knight with a homer in each game of a three-game set was Pat Biserta in 2010 at FIU.

Welsh finished the day 3-for-4 and knocked in eight runs in the series.

On the mound, junior Tommy Genuario pitched three hitless and scoreless frames to start, but surrendered six runs in the fourth inning (one unearned). Senior Serafino Brito followed with 1.1 innings in his 86^th career appearance, which finishes tied with Max Herrmann (2014-17) for second in Rutgers history. The right-hander's 171 strikeouts sits eighth all-time in the program record books. Freshman Garrett French and junior Eric Reardon both tossed scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

The pitching staff added three strikeouts to end the year with 381, third-most by the team in a season in school history.

Andrew Saalfrank earned the win for Indiana with three runs permitted over six innings, totaling six strikeouts. The Hoosiers scored six times in the fourth, twice in the fifth, two more in the seventh and three in the eighth.

RU concludes the season with nine Big Ten wins, tying the 2016 team for the most since joining the conference. Rutgers would have needed to sweep this weekend to earn a spot at the Big Ten playoffs factoring in other results from around the league. It was the final game as a Scarlet Knight for Luke Bowerbank, Brito, Tyler McNamara and Carmen Sclafani.

"Those four are a class act," Litterio said. "They handled the staff changes after their sophomore season very well. This group took to it and not only led on the field, but in the classroom and in the community. They are part of this program going forward. We can't thank them enough."

GOODBYE! Welsh homers for the third-straight day to pull the Scarlet Knights closer. Now with eight RBIs this series.

First three career homers for the junior all here in Bloomington.

T5 | Indiana 6, Rutgers 3 pic.twitter.com/dPxhlvDE8y
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 18, 2019

Valderrama makes a nice catch in deep center to help Genuario deal a 1-2-3 second.

T3 | Rutgers 1, Indiana 0 pic.twitter.com/dZCJxNGIWS
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 18, 2019

Genuario starts a 1-6-3 double play to finish off the first.

T2 | Rutgers 1, Indiana 0 pic.twitter.com/ErAVhdyErI
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 18, 2019

Welsh rips a single to score Nyisztor! Shortstop now with six RBIs this weekend & Scarlet Knights take the early lead.

T1 | Rutgers 1, Indiana 0 pic.twitter.com/BdlzZmOPbB
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 18, 2019

Nyisztor leads off with a double! Watch on @BigTenNetwork.

T1 | Rutgers 0, Indiana 0 pic.twitter.com/oyf4XL4URz
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 18, 2019

Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding baseball, follow the program on Twitter (@RutgersBaseball), Instagram (@rutgersbaseball) and Facebook (/BaseballRU). For additional updates, please download the Gameday App.