LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. – The Rutgers baseball team (14-5) used a complete team effort to pick up its 13
th road win of the season, defeating Rider (9-10) by a score of 5-2 on Tuesday afternoon.
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With Rutgers having returned late Sunday night from a two-week road trip to Hawaii and Nebraska, the team battled through circumstances to pick up an important win over an in-state foe.
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"It's a midweek game where we're happy to get on the good end," head coach
Steve Owens said. "We're still recovering from a long trip. We'll practice hard for a couple of days, sleep good and get ready for Big Ten play."
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The Scarlet Knights took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a
Mike Nyisztor RBI groundout and would be in control the rest of the way. RU added runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings and never trailed in the contest.
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Wyatt Parliament got the start and battled through control issues to get through 1.2 innings of scoreless ball.
Kyle Muller would relieve him and toss 2.1 scoreless frames, allowing just two hits to pick up his first win of the season.
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Justin Sinibaldi,
Jayson Hoopes,
Nate McLain and
Garrett French would finish the game for RU, with the group allowing just 1 earned run on the day.
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"Kyle did a good job. He's a strike thrower. The infield made a couple plays for him. Then we just kind of passes the ball around and just tried to match up a little bit," Owens said of the pitching staff. "In the middle of the week games, we're going to be using a lot of pitchers that don't pitch on the weekends. Today I thought we did a good job of minimizing the runs even though we gave up quite a few hits."
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Offensively,
Evan Sleight led the charge, going 4-for-5 with 2 runs scored, improving his season average to .415.
Tony Santa Maria added three hits and a double, while
Ryan Lasko hit leadoff and went 1-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and a walk.
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"Evan was excellent all day. He did a really good job and had quality at-bats," Owens said. "That's why he's hitting over .400. He's really consistent."
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- T2 | With runners on the corners, Mike Nyisztor grounds out to second base, scoring Evan Sleight. RU 1-0
- T5 | After a Ryan Lasko leadoff triple, Danny DiGeorgio lifts a deep sacrifice fly to left field to score Lasko. RU 2-0
- T6 | Evan Sleight leads off the inning with a double, goes to third on a Chris Brito single and scores on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Nyisztor. RU 3-0
- B6 | Brendan O'Donnell leads off with a single, advances to third on an E8 and scores on a sacrifice fly. RU 3-1
- B7 | Rider strings together three straight singles, with Socrates Bardatsos driving in Jack Winsett from third. RU 3-2
- T8 | With the bases loaded, Mike Nyisztor hit a ground ball to shortstop. The play went to home plate, but the catcher dropped the ball, allowing Tony Santa Maria to score. RU 4-2
- T8 | Ryan Lasko lifts a deep sacrifice fly to right-center field, scoring Mike Nyisztor from third. RU 5-2
The Scarlet Knights open Big Ten play on the road against Penn State this weekend, with game one taking place at 6:00 p.m. on Friday.
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