Rutgers baseball wins 2 out of 3 in series against Northwestern
In a weekend series punctuated by close games and extra innings, the Rutgers baseball team won 2 of its 3 games against Northwestern. The Scarlet Knights (11-9, 11-9) bounced back from losing the opener to defeat the Wildcats (11-10, 11-10) by taking the Saturday and Sunday games.
Junior left-handed pitcher Harry Rutkowski started off the series on the mound as Rutgers looked to bounce back from its series against Penn State, having lost 2 of the 3 games.
In his outing, the lefty found trouble early in the game. In the first, Shawn Goosenberg hit a solo home run to left field getting Northwestern on the board right away.
The Wildcats found more runs off of Rutkowski with another home run in the fourth by Michael Trautwein and then a third in the seventh by Stephen Hrustich.
In his start for Northwestern, Mike Doherty held the Knights at bay, giving up one run in his seven innings of work and striking out six.
In the eighth inning, the Rutgers bats came alive. Freshman outfielder Ryan Lasko hit a two-run home run cutting the lead to just one for the Wildcats.
With one man on base in the top of the ninth, fifth-year senior infielder Kevin Welsh hit a two-run home run putting the Knights ahead and going into the bottom of the ninth leading 5-4.
In the bottom of the inning with two outs, head baseball coach Steve Owens brought in freshman left-handed pitcher Brian Fitzpatrick to face Anthony Calarco, who hit a game-tying solo home run to push the game into extra innings.
The Rutgers pitching staff couldn’t get past Northwestern and gave up a walk-off home run to Goosenberg, who won with his second long ball of the game.
“It was a really tough game to lose, any walk-off is. It seems like there's been a lot of those both ways this year," Owens said. "Overall, I wasn't pleased with our pitching giving up five home runs and our hitting for not coming through in the plenty of scoring opportunities throughout the game. There wasn't much production, we need to do a better job with situational hitting. It was a very emotional, tough game.”
The ball was placed in graduate student left-handed pitcher Ben Wereski’s hands to start game two of the series. Wereski had a rough start giving up two runs in the first two innings, but then went on to pitch 5.2 innings while striking out seven Wildcats.
Freshman first baseman Jordan Sweeney got things started in the first with an RBI double and in the second, sophomore catcher Andy Axelson hit one as well.
Going into the top of the third with the Knights down 4-2, Sweeney got it started with a single up the middle scoring junior outfielder Richie Schiekofer, who went 3-6 for the day.
Rutgers was able to take advantage and score off of mistakes by Northwestern. These came from two errors, one in the fourth and then a bases-loaded walk to junior infielder/outfielder Mike Nyistor in the top of the seventh, pushing the lead to 7-4.
Schiekofer would hit a single that put the lead to 8-4 and sealed the game for the Knights who evened the series going into the rubber match.
Freshman left-handed pitcher Justin Sinibaldi got his first collegiate start for Rutgers in the final game of the series. Sinibaldi went five innings, allowing zero runs and striking out five Wildcats.
The Rutgers bats got off to a hot start, with Lasko leading the pack. The outfielder hit a solo home run in the second inning and then in the fourth hit a two-run shot, giving the Knights a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, Rutgers held a 5-0 lead and Sinibaldi was in line to get his first career win.
Northwestern scored one in the eighth from a solo home run by Trautwein and then went on to add four more to tie it up in the ninth. Two of those runs came from Goosenberg, who hit four home runs in the series for the Wildcats.
In the top of the tenth, Sweeney finished off the game with a solo home run that put the Knights ahead 6-5 and ultimately won them the series.
This weekend, Rutgers will play a four-game series at home against Iowa starting on Friday at 2 p.m.
“To answer right back and change the momentum again was important. The guys stuck to a good offensive approach today and short of two innings, we played really well this weekend,” Owens said. “Anytime you can go on the road against a team ahead of you in the standings and pick up two wins is great. I'm excited for our team and look forward to a good trip home.”
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