Rutgers baseball regroups with victory over Columbia

The Purdue Boilermakers swept the Scarlet Knights on the diamond this weekend in a series that concluded with an odd game where no earned runs were scored. Tuesday, Rutgers baseball returned to the win column with an independent game win over Lou Gehrig’s alma mater, Columbia.

Friday: Purdue 4, Rutgers 0

O’Reilly’s strong performance for naught as bats fail to score.

Saturday: Purdue 9, Rutgers 4

Purdue rallies for four multi-run innings in the contest. Matera’s two hits and two RBI not enough. Box Score.

Sunday: Purdue 1, Rutgers 0

Purdue tallies only run of the game on an unearned run in the first. Star catcher Nick Dalesandro singled, stole second, and a bad throw by Nick Matera allowed him to get over to third. An RBI groundout was the only run of the game. The teams combined for only seven hits in the contest. Box Score.

Tuesday: Rutgers 15, Columbia 4

Eric Reardon (3-2) got the start and ended up going five frames allowing a run on two hits with four punchouts. Rutgers got a run in the first, five in the second, and one in the third. Nick Matera tallied three RBI in the first two innings alone. Rutgers added another in the 5th on Kevin Blum’s second RBI of the game. In the 6th Rutgers put up five more including back to back triples from Milo Freeman and Kevin Welsh. Aaron McLaughlin completed the scoring with his first career hit, a two RBI single.

Kyle Gerace, Tevin Murray, Kevin Romero, Dylan McNulty, and Ryan Wares all pitched out of the bullpen. Dan DiGeorgio went three for three with three runs scored and two stolen bases. Welsh and Blum (4 RBI) also had three hit games. Jawuan Harris only had one hit, but tallied two more stolen bases.

Next up

It’s a tough road for the Scarlet Knights (23-18, 6-9) to right the ship and qualify for the Big Ten tournament. They currently sit in 9th place, only 1.5 games back of the 8th spot, but a three game series against first place Michigan and another versus second place Minnesota remain on the schedule.

Conference play continues at Bainton Field Friday with a 2 pm first pitch against the Michigan Wolverines. Saturday’s game is at 1 p.m. and Sunday’s game is at noon.

Off the Field