WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Rutgers baseball defeated Monmouth by a score of 8-1 on Tuesday afternoon at MU Baseball Field in West Long Branch.
The Scarlet Knights (21-16, 4-5 Big Ten) used dominant pitching and consistent offense to take down the Hawks (12-20, 3-13 CAA) in wire-to-wire fashion.
RU got going early, as
Josh Kuroda-Grauer reached on an error to start the game and came around to score later in the inning on an RBI groundout off the bat of
Ryan Lasko.
On the mound,
Justin Sinibaldi made his sixth midweek start of the season and produced three scoreless innings, yielding one hit and two walks while striking out a pair of batters.
The Scarlet Knights gave themselves some breathing room in the third, plating three runs to take control of the game.
Chris Brito singled home Lasko to make it 2-0.
Maximus Martin brought home Brito with a sac fly and
Jordan Sweeney laced an RBI single to score
Hugh Pinkney.
Jake Marshall entered for the fourth inning and was dominant in his three innings of relief. He allowed just one base runner on an infield single, otherwise getting nine outs with no issues. He struck out three Hawks and exited after the sixth, throwing three scoreless on one hit, no walks and three strikeouts on 39 pitches.
An RBI single from
Hugh Pinkney and sac fly from
Danny Melnick in the sixth made it 6-0. Brito followed suit with a two-run double in the seventh, pushing the lead to 8-0.
Wyatt Parliament entered for the seventh and tossed a 1-2-3 frame with a strikeout.
While Monmouth was able to scratch across an unearned run in the eighth,
John Modugno entered and got a strikeout and flyout to end the frame.
Sam Bello pitched the ninth for RU and threw a scoreless frame with a swinging strikeout to end the game.
Rutgers is now set to hit the road for a three-game series at Northwestern, beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
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