KENNESAW, Ga. – Rutgers baseball remained undefeated on its spring break trip and won its fifth straight game overall with a 5-4 road triumph over Kennesaw State on Monday night.
The Scarlet Knights (8-7) received a strong outing from starting pitcher
Justin Sinibaldi and used a big second inning on offense to help pull out the victory over the Owls (8-7), the defending ASUN champions.
After a scoreless first inning, RU hung a crooked number in the second to take control of the game. They loaded the bases with no outs and put across 4 runs thanks to a single from
Evan Sleight, a hard-hit grounder ruled an error from
Ryan Lasko, a bunt single by
Cameron Love and a sac fly by
Trevor Cohen.
Sinibaldi, meanwhile, shut down the KSU lineup with four straight scoreless innings. While he did allow a run in the fifth, he worked out of the inning to put himself in position to ultimately earn his second win of the season and improve to 2-1 on the year. He finished with 5.0 innings, allowing 1 run on two hits, striking out three and walking two.
Sam Portnoy came in to relieve Sinibaldi and got five outs on an efficient 18 pitches.
Joe Mazza entered to get the final out of the seventh and would remain in the game and throw a scoreless eighth inning with a pair of strikeouts.
Sleight led off the top of the ninth with a double, before going to third on an
Andy Axelson sac bunt and scoring on a Lasko sac fly to make it 5-1.
While the Owls made a rally in the bottom of the ninth, putting 3 runs on the board to make it 5-4,
Sam Bello came in from the bullpen to get the final out the game on a routine flyout and secure the victory.
Rutgers wraps up its spring break trip to Georgia this weekend when it heads to Macon to face Mercer in a three-game series.
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