CONWAY, S.C. – Rutgers baseball (3-1) fell on the short side of a Friday slugfest in a 15-10 loss to Coastal Carolina (4-1) at Spring Brooks Stadium. It was the first all-time meeting on the diamond between the Scarlet Knights and Chanticleers.
Â
"Our lineup was incredible tonight," head coach
Steve Owens said. "The hitters did a great job of swinging at strikes, getting good counts and consistently hitting the ball hard. We had 15 hits on a Friday with 10 runs, that should be enough to win. Obviously, we pitched poorly. We didn't control the game on the mound, poor execution in key spots."
Â
Evan Sleight matched his career high with three hits in knocking in three runs.
Richie Schiekofer,
Chris Brito,
Nick Cimillo and
Tony Santa Maria all had two-hit games in the 15-hit attack. All nine starters had at least one hit. The Scarlet Knights have posted at least 11 hits in each of the four games, totaling 58 overall to plate 42 runs so far.
Â
Cimillo hit RU's first homer of the season, a blast of 451 feet to left-center.
Â
Kyle Muller highlighted the pitching staff with two scoreless frames on an efficient 14 pitches. Coastal Carolina scored in each of the first six innings to record 15 runs.
Â
Defensively, Rutgers did not commit an error for the third-straight game with only one on the season.
Â
- T1 | Mike Nyisztor led off the game with a double and scored right away on a single through the left side by Schiekofer.
- B1 | The Chanticleers scored three runs on a two-run homer by Dale Thomas and a two-out wild pitch.
- T2 | RU responded with two to tie the game at three. Cimillo led off with a 451-foot homer to left-center, his first long ball as a Scarlet Knight. Sleight and Jordan Sweeney both singled, with Santa Maria following with an RBI single.
- B2 | Thomas hit a two-out solo homer for Coastal Carolina.
- T3 | The Scarlet Knights retook the lead with two runs, 5-4. Brito stroked a one-out double, advanced to third on a grounder and crossed on a wild pitch. Sleight delivered a two-out RBI single.
- B3 | Chris Rowan Jr. hit a game-tying RBI double for the home team and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly.
- B4 | Coastal Carolina scored two on a two-out homer by Eric Brown.
- T5 | Ryan Lasko smoked a one-out single and Cimillo followed with one of his own before Sleight lined an RBI single up the middle to cut the deficit to 8-6.
- B5 | The Chanticleers posted five in the inning to build a 13-6 lead.
- T6 | RU chipped away with three runs. Nyisztor led off drawing a walk and scored two batters later on a Danny DiGeorgio double. Brito would also double, later scoring on a sacrifice fly by Sleight.
- B6 | CCU answered with two runs with two outs to make it 15-9.
- T7 | Santa Maria was hit by a pitch, advanced on an error, took third on a balk and scored on a sacrifice fly by Schiekofer.
Â
In a change to the schedule due to inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday, the Scarlet Knights will now play a doubleheader at UNCW Saturday starting at 2 p.m. The originally-scheduled Sunday contest versus Middle Tennessee is canceled.
Â
"Tomorrow is going to be a long day playing 18 innings," Owens said. "Tough to come back from a long game, but I've challenged our guys to be ready to go. We will be facing another really good team. Hopefully we learn lessons on the mound from this game and get better."
Â
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 Scarlet Knights App via the
app store or
play store.
