MARIETTA, Ga. – Rutgers baseball beat Kennesaw State 7-2 on Saturday afternoon to clinch a season-opening series win. The Scarlet Knights (2-1) scored five runs in the fourth and got strong contributions from its pitching staff to take down the Owls (1-2) in the rubber game. 
 
For the third straight game, RU received a strong outing from its starting pitcher. Preston Prince made his Scarlet Knight debut and fired three scoreless innings, yielding one hit and two walks, striking out four.
 
After Prince's third scoreless frame, the Rutgers offense went to work. Yomar Carreras led off the fourth with a double into the left-center gap. JT Thompson followed with a bunt single. Matt Chatelle put the first run across on a sac fly to deep center field. Trevor Cohen doubled to make it 2-0 and Brennan Hyde beat out an infield single to make it 3-0. With Cohen on second, Ty Doucette flew out to deep center field, but Cohen made a great read on the play and scored from second to make it 4-0. Peyton Bonds added an RBI single to make it 5-0.
 
Quinn Berglin took over on the mound in the bottom of the fourth and kept up the strong weekend for the RU pitching staff. Berglin fired three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit, one walk and striking out four.
 
True freshman Cameron Johnson took over in the seventh and struck out the first batter he faced, posting a zero and sending the Scarlet Knights to the eighth with a 5-0 lead.
 
Brennan Hyde led off the eighth with an opposite-field home run to push the advantage to 6-0.
 
The Owls were able to push across a pair in the bottom of the eighth, using a fielder's choice and two-out single to make it 6-2. The Scarlet Knights responded with an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a double from RJ Johnson Jr. to score JD Jones.
 
After getting the final out of the eighth, Jordan Falco tossed a scoreless ninth to close out the victory and the series.
 
Rutgers is back in action next weekend with a four-game series at Grand Canyon.

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