PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball used a balanced offensive effort to cruise to a 12-7 victory over Hofstra on Tuesday night at Bainton Field.
 
The Scarlet Knights (14-15) scored in each of the first six innings to beat the Pride (10-18) and close out their homestand 4-1.
 
In the bottom of the first, JT Thompson pulled an RBI double to give RU an early 1-0 advantage. With the bases loaded in the second, Trevor Cohen laced a bases-clearing double to left-center and made it 4-0.
 
Hofstra battled back in the third, scoring three runs on a pair of singles to get within a run at 4-3.
 
Despite the Pride making it close, the Rutgers offense was relentless with another in the third on a Pablo Santos single and one in the fourth on a Thompson single, bringing the advantage to 6-3.
 
Ty Doucette drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth and Cohen hit a grounder that was misplayed, allowing two to cross and push the advantage to 9-3 after five. Another RBI double – this one from JD Jones in the sixth – would make it 10-3.
 
Hofstra hung its second crooked number of the night in the seventh, plating three more to tighten things up at 10-6.
 
In the bottom half of the eighth, a Peyton Bonds sac fly and RBI single from Doucette made it 12-6.

After the Pride got within a run, RU used scoreless frames from Charles Batista and Preston Prince to settle things down and regain control of the game. Jordan Falco also provided 1.2 scoreless innings of relief and Matthew Cruz came in with two on in the ninth to close out the game with a flyout and a pair of strikeouts. 

Notes

• A team-high seven Scarlet Knights recorded multiple hits in the game.
• Peyton Bonds recorded his seventh multi-hit game of the season. 
• Ty Doucette recorded his 10th multi-hit game of the season. 
• Trevor Cohen recorded his 12th multi-hit game of the season. 
• JT Thompson recorded his seventh multi-hit game of the season. 
• Pablo Santos recorded his ninth multi-hit game of the season.
• RJ Johnson Jr. recorded his fifth multi-hit game of the season.
• JD Jones recorded his third multi-hit game of the season.
• The Rutgers defense has not committed an error in 17 consecutive games, raising its Big Ten-best fielding percentage to .987.

Up next for Rutgers is a trip to Lincoln for a three-game series against Nebraska, with game one set for 7 p.m. on Friday.

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