No. 21 Texas A&M Wins Pitchers Duel Over Rutgers, 2-1

Press release

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Despite another solid pitching performance from Rutgers starter Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.), the Scarlet Knights came up just short of a series-clinching victory over No. 21 Texas A&M, falling to the Aggies, 2-1, Saturday night in front of 3,315 fans at Olsen Field.

Rutgers (3-5) and Texas A&M (10-3) will meet in the rubber game on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (ET) as RU took the opener, 10-8.

Gaynor (1-2) had another stellar outing with eight strikeouts and just one walk in seven innings of work. Overshadowing the RU hurler\’s performance, however, was Texas A&M starter, Brooks Raley (2-0), who struck out 10 and yielded just three hits in 7.2 scoreless innings to pick up the win for the Aggies.

In the fourth, Texas A&M\’s Jose Duran collected the Aggies\’ second hit of the contest with a hard-hit grounder that short-hopped Dan Betteridge (Sewell, N.J.) at shortstop. Duran used a Gaynor wild pitch to move into scoring position and reached third on a groundout to second. With the Aggie runner 90 feet away, Brian Ruggiano laid down a well-executed sacrifice bunt to plate the first run of the contest. Rutgers avoided a possible second run when a sharply-hit line drive to the gap in left-center field off the bat of Darby Brown was corralled by a diving Donny Callahan (Sparta, N.J.) for the third out of the frame.

The Aggies took a 2-0 lead with a run in the fifth when Keith McInnerney lined a one-out single up the middle and swiped second where Dan Carter drove him in with a single to right field.

Rutgers threatened in the sixth when Brett Garlick (Livingston, N.J.) drilled a ball off the wall in left-center field for a one-out double. RU could not get him home as Raley got out of it with a fly out to left field to end the inning.

Rutgers got a run in the ninth when pinch hitter Jarred Jimenez (Monroe, N.J.) tripled to the gap in right-center to lead off the frame and Jon Gossard (Harrington Park, N.J.) scored him on a groundout to the shortstop. Reliever Travis Starling, however, picked up his fourth save of the season, getting Jaren Matthews (Teaneck, N.J.) to ground out to end the game.

Callahan collected two of Rutgers\’ four hits on the night while Garlick\’s double and Jimenez\’s triple were the only extra-base hits recorded by either team in the game.

Rutgers and Texas A&M will conclude their series with a 1:00 p.m. game tomorrow. Junior righty Matt Giannini (Millington, N.J.) will be on the mound for the Scarlet Knights against sophomore righty Scott Migl for the Aggies.