Box score
PISCATAWAY, NJ—Rutgers scored eight runs in its final three turns at bat, pulling away from visiting NJIT for an 11-1 baseball win Wednesday afternoon.
Rutgers, winner of four straight coming in and one of the nation's top college baseball programs from outside of the Sun Belt on a nearly-annual basis, actually took the lead for good with two runs in the bottom of the first inning.
But the Scarlet Knights (6-5) did not truly put the game, their home opener, beyond NJIT's reach until the bottom of the sixth, seven and eighth innings, when they poured eight combined runs on top of the 3-1 lead they held through five innings.
Senior RHP Tony Wargo (2-0) got the win for Rutgers, starting and scattering three hits over the first six innings. He allowed an unearned run in the top of the first inning and finished with five strikeouts and a walk.
CF Luis Feliz and C Jayson Hernandez each generated three hits to pace Rutgers' 13-hit attack.
No doubt the most encouraging aspect of the day for NJIT was the pitching line of starting RHP Steven Ace, who went four innings and allowed three hits and two runs (one earned), with a walk and a strikeout against a lineup that almost certainly contains multiple players who will play professionally after college.
Ace, the sophomore right-hander, appears to have made significant strides beyond a freshman season in which he appeared in 12 games and pitched 12.1 innings, allowing an average of more than two runs an inning out of the bullpen.
This year a combination of circumstances moved him up the depth chart and he has responded well, starting games against two strong foes, West Virginia and Rutgers.
In the West Virginia series, he was NJIT's most effective pitcher aside from senior ace LHP PJ Saporito. Ace allowed five runs through the first five innings last Saturday against explosive West Virginia and followed that with his even more effective outing at Rutgers.
NJIT got five hits, all singles, against Wargo and two Rutgers relievers. Saporito, who started the game as the Highlanders' designated hitter, got one of the singles to drive home senior classmate, 2B Craig Binkiewicz, who had led off with another single, for the game's first run in the opening frame.
Rutgers responded with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. RF Michael Lang doubled in the leadoff spot and scored an unearned run to tie the score. Hernandez later doubled for the first of his three hits, plating 1B Jaren Matthews, who had been hit by a pitch.
The scored remained 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth inning when 3B Vinnie Sangemino, leading off for RU, homered against RHP Reid Okita, the first of three Highlander relievers.
Okita, a freshman, escaped further damage in that inning, but couldn't get through the sixth, getting two more outs, but also allowing three more runs. Rutgers added two more runs in the next frame by stringing together three two-out hits and then freshman Russ Hopkins capped the scoring for the Scarlet Knights, powering a three run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.
NJIT, which has played its first five games against teams from the Big East Conference, will take on another Big East squad in the next game. The Highlanders will take on host Seton Hall on Friday at 4 pm, opening the Strike Out Cancer Tournament in South Orange, NJ.
The Highlanders will continue play in the weekend tournament at Seton Hall, taking on Iona at 10 am on Saturday and Northeastern at 10 am on Sunday.
