Rutgers baseball team bests Old Dominion, wins 2 of 3 in weekend series
The Rutgers baseball team continued its hot start to the season when it took on Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia, this weekend. The Scarlet Knights (5-1, 0-0) racked up 22 total runs and won 2 of 3 games against the Monarchs (4-3, 0-0).
Game one
Rutgers began the series in dominant fashion on Friday, putting up 10 runs on 15 hits and defeating Old Dominion 10-3.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Christian Coppola tossed six quality innings and struck out nine batters to earn his second win of the season. Coppola allowed just two earned runs, one hit and three walks.
The Knights started strong and were up 7-2 through three innings. Junior infielder Josh Kuroda-Grauer started the scoring in the first, grounding out to the shortstop to score junior outfielder RJ Johnson Jr. from third.
A second run followed quickly after when redshirt sophomore infielder Tony Santa Maria scored off a single from freshman catcher Jackson Natili.
In the second, Johnson Jr. brought in Rutgers' third run of the day on a sacrifice fly, barely missing a grand slam. Hits from sophomore outfielder Trevor Cohen and Kuroda-Grauer brought in runs four and five.
Cohen ended the game going 5 for 5 with two runs batted in (RBI).
The Monarchs broke their scoring drought in the bottom of the third after letting up two more runs to the Knights. Kyle Edwards homered to right field to pick up two runs for Old Dominion and log the lone hit of the day against Coppola.
Things would go quiet until the seventh inning, where Rutgers earned its final three runs of the day to reach double digits.
The Monarchs picked up one final run in the bottom of the seventh but couldn't do much else against graduate student right-handed pitcher Jake Marshall, who closed out the last three innings and recorded the save.
Game two
The Knights clinched the series on Saturday, edging out Old Dominion for a 7-6 victory courtesy of some timely offense and clutch relief pitching.
Rutgers began as it has all season, striking at the earliest opportunity to control the flow of the game. In the first, the pair of Kuroda-Grauer and Natili each singled to center field to drive in the first two runs of the game.
In the third, the Knights doubled their lead to 4-0 thanks to another RBI single from Natili and an error on a ball hit by senior infielder Jordan Sweeney.
Things were all peaches and cream for Rutgers, grabbing another two runs in the top of the fifth to take a commanding 6-0 lead, but it wouldn't stay this way for long.
Senior left-handed pitcher Justin Sinibaldi started strong on the mound for the Knights, allowing zero hits through the first four innings, but the Monarchs woke up the bats in the fifth, surging back to tie the game at six a piece.
Six of Old Dominion's eight hits came in the fifth, lighting up Sinibaldi to the tune of six base knocks. Graduate student right-handed pitcher Sonny Fauci relieved Sinibaldi and ended the fifth by striking out his first batter faced.
Johnson Jr. wasted no time retaliating for Rutgers, though, homering to right field to put the Knights up 7-6 in the sixth.
A committee of Fauci, redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Sam Portnoy and junior left-handed pitcher Joe Mazza, held things down from the sixth to the eighth inning. Graduate student left-handed pitcher Joey DeChiaro then closed out the game in the ninth and picked up a save against his former school.
Fauci was credited with the win and improved to 2-0 on the season. DeChiaro's save was his second of the season.
Game three
Rutgers started off hot on Sunday, scoring all five of its runs in the first two innings before ultimately falling 9-5.
Freshman right-handed pitcher and infielder Zack Konstantinovsky started on the mound for the Knights, holding the Monarchs to just one hit through three innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, though, Old Dominion found its stride, scoring six runs on four hits, including a home run to right field by Luke Waters that scored two. Konstantinovsky was pulled during the affair and would later be credited with the loss.
Rutgers would go quiet on offense for the rest of the day, only recording three hits while the Monarchs racked up three more runs.
The Knights will look to continue their solid start to the season on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m., when they travel to Merion Station, Pennsylvania, to take on St. Joe's at John W. Smithson '68 Field.
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