Rutgers Baseball gets swept by No. 3 ranked Miami Hurricanes
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights baseball team took on the No. 3 ranked Miami Hurricanes this weekend in a three game series to open up the season. While the series didn't go in the Scarlet Knights favor, there are some positives to take away from the three games.
GAME 1 - MIAMI: 2 | RUTGERS: 1
THE SKINNY: Rutgers gave Miami all they can handle in game one, as the Scarlet Knights pitchers dominated the evening. Starter Harry Rutkowski threw five-innings of two hit, one run ball and relievers Muller and Reardon finished off the next three innings giving up zero runs and just three hits. Despite the solid pitching, in the end it was the Scarlet Knights hitting that didn’t show up to play. Rutgers only run on the night came from first baseman Chris Brito, who hit a solo shot in the top of the eighth.
FULL BOX SCORE
GAME 2 - MIAMI: 8 | RUTGERS: 2
THE SKINNY: This was another tough one for Rutgers. Despite Miami getting a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, Rutgers battled back to score two in third, only for Miami to answer with two of their own in the bottom of the third. It was a one run game for the next three innings, until Miami scored four runs on Rutgers reliever Steven Acosta who gave up four earned runs without getting an out. The game would go into a rain delay and finished out the final one and two thirds innings on Sunday. Overall another rough performance for the Scarlet Knights bats, as they finished with six hits, but it was the rough outing from Acosta which really sealed the deal for Miami.
FULL BOX SCORE
GAME 3 - MIAMI: 13 | RUTGERS: 6
THE SKINNY: Man oh man, this was an ugly one to end the series. This result didn’t come as too much of a surprise given the fact that Miami is ranked No. 3 in the country and has a pretty good shot at winning the college baseball World Series this year, but they absolutely dominated the Rutgers pithing staff today. Preseason All-B1G second team pitcher Tevin Murray only got through 1.1 innings as he gave up 5 runs (4 earned) and the next three pitchers Scott, Parkinson and Reardon gave up a total of seven runs over the next 4.2 innings to give up a total of 12 runs before the eighth inning was even over. Plus the Scarlet Knights only had two hits through eight, which led to this demoralizing defeat.
FULL BOX SCORE
TKR THOUGHTS......
Let’s start with the pitching, we knew this was going to be a tough series from the start. It was nice to see starters Rutkowski and Genuario pitch relatively well against a top tier team. As for the bullpen, Muller’s numbers looked very good, allowing three hits in 2.1 innings of relief along with a pretty good strike to ball ratio (28-11). After that it was an up and down type of performance for the rest of the bullpen, Acosta and Reardon both were good in one game and bad in another. The biggest concern from this series I would say is the performance from senior starter Tevin Murray, who gave up four runs and couldn’t even get out of the second inning. He faced this same Miami team last year and only gave up two earned runs through 4.2 innings. Maybe it was just the worst season opening jitters, maybe the preseason hype is getting to him or maybe Miami is really just that good of a team. Either way it is something to keep an eye on going forward.
On the flip side, the hitting wasn’t the best this weekend, but they did have their moments. From the looks of the stats, it looks like Rutgers has found their cleanup hitting in Chris Brito who came away with two home runs and this weekend. However other than Brito, everyone else really struggled to hit the ball this weekend. Brito and Serruto are the only two players to finish a game this weekend with multiple hits. Going into the season we all knew that this team was going to struggle hitting, but the fact that they were competitive against the number three ranked Miami Hurricanes is encouraging.
NEXT UP......
Rutgers heads back home for a couple of days of rest and more practice before heading back to Florida to take on North Florida (Jacksonville, Fla.) in a three game series starting Friday at 6pm.
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