PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball used a dominant offensive day to beat Minnesota by a score of 12-6 on Sunday afternoon at Bainton Field.
 
The Scarlet Knights (18-22, 7-11 Big Ten) scored multiple runs in four-of-eight innings at the plate to overpower the Golden Gophers (20-18, 7-11 Big Ten) and win the series finale. 
 
After a seeing-eye pop-up fell into left field for a double, Minnesota jumped ahead on an RBI single in the top of the second. RU tied things up in the bottom half on a sac fly from Pablo Santos. 

Rutgers then hung its first of three straight crooked numbers in the third, posting three runs to take the lead. An RBI triple from Trevor Cohen scored the first, a sac fly from Jack Sweeney added another and a throwing error after an infield single scored the third to make it 4-1. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Peyton Bonds launched his second home run of the season – a three-run shot to left-center – to give RU the 7-1 advantage. 

A sac fly and three-run homer for the Golden Gophers tightened the game up at 7-5 heading into the bottom of the fifth. 
 
An RBI single from Ty Doucette, RBI double from Cohen and wild pitch gave Rutgers some breathing room at 10-5. 

A two-out error gave Minnesota its sixth run in the eighth, but that was it for the visitors on the day. In the bottom of the frame, a single from Matt Chatelle and sac fly from Yomar Carreras erased all doubt to push the advantage to 12-6. 

Justin Shadek earned the win for Rutgers, pitching five innings and giving up five runs on four hits and five strikeouts. Nolan Peel provided 2.2 strong innings of relief, giving up no earned runs on five hits and striking out three. After entering with the tying run on deck in the eighth, Dillon Ryan got the last out of the frame and tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his first save of the season. 

Up next for Rutgers is a midweek contest at St. John's on 3 p.m. Tuesday in Queens.

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