NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – Rutgers baseball used a strong day at the plate and a dominant effort on the mound from Justin Sinibaldi to split Saturday's doubleheader at Charleston Southern. The Scarlet Knights (7-2) were on the wrong end of an 11-8 shootout with the Buccaneers (5-5) in game one before responding with a dominant 9-1 victory in game two. 

Game 1 Recap
The first game of the afternoon was a back-and-forth affair started by a 5-run first inning from the Scarlet Knights.

With the bases loaded and no outs, Josh Kuroda-Grauer doubled into left to score a pair. Cameron Love doubled home two more to make it 4-0 and Hugh Pinkney had an RBI groundout to make it 5-0. 

The Buccaneers answered with three of their own in the bottom half to get back in the game, using a leadoff home run and a pair of RBI doubles to make it 5-3. Another RBI double in the second brought it to 5-4. 

A two-out, two-run double by RJ Johnson Jr. made it 7-4 in the third. The teams traded runs with a CSU solo home run and Hugh Pinkney sac fly. 

With the score 8-5 in favor of RU in the bottom of the fourth, the Buccaneers closed out the game with six unanswered runs. Three runs in the fifth made it 9-8 and two more insurance runs later in the game pushed it to 11-8. 

Game 2 Recap
After the two teams traded zeroes in the first two innings, Rutgers broke through in the third to take control of the game. Kuroda-Grauer, Pete Durocher and Jordan Sweeney all drove in runs with RBI singles to make it 3-0. 

In the very next inning, Jackson Natili (single), Johnny Volpe (sac bunt) and Love (sac fly) helped the offense post another three-spot to extend the lead to 6-0. 

The Scarlet Knights posted their third three-spot of the game in the seventh, using another Kuroda-Grauer single, a Volpe sac fly and a steal-and-stop to score Kuroda-Grauer. 

While the offense was posting runs in bunches, Justin Sinibaldi was putting together a career performance on the mound. He went a career-high eight innings, giving up just one run on four hits, while striking out a career-high 11 with zero walks. His 11 strikeouts broke his previous career-best mark by four (seven against Illinois in 2023). 

While CSU would score once in the eighth, Sam Portnoy came in and tossed a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout to cap off the victory. 

The series finale between Rutgers and Charleston Southern is set for an 11 a.m. first pitch on Sunday morning.

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