STATESBORO, Ga. (March 11, 2023) – Rutgers baseball secured the series victory at Georgia Southern by winning game one of Saturday's doubleheader by a score of 19-6 over the Eagles.
The Scarlet Knights struck early and often, putting up runs in each of the first five innings and in eight innings total.
Ryan Lasko started the game off by getting to second on a two-base error. He went to third on an infield single and scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0.
While GS evened the game in the first, RU struck back in the second.
Josh Kuroda-Grauer led off the frame with a single and quickly advanced to third on a stolen base and wild throw.
Jordan Sweeney then drove him in with a sac fly to right.
The Scarlet Knights broke the game open in the third on a no-doubt grand slam from Kuroda-Grauer, his first home run of the season.
Jordan Sweeney followed with a solo shot to make it back-to-back home runs and an 8-2 lead for Rutgers.
After RU added 2 more runs in the fifth,
Evan Sleight and
Andy Axelson hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh to push the score to 13-3.
While the Eagles hit a pair of home runs to make is to make it 13-6 in the seventh, the Scarlet Knights added 3 more in both the eighth and ninth innings to push the score to 19-6.
True freshman
Christian Coppola got the start for Rutgers and picked up the first win of his career. He went 5.0 innings, allowing just 1 run on four hits, while striking out five and walking none.
Sam Portnoy finished off the victory, throwing 2.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts.
Rutgers will go for the sweep in game two of the doubleheader at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening.
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