Pitching on and off in split

Rutgers baseball head coach Fred Hill Sr.’s words could not have rung any truer after his team’s 15-4 loss in the second game of a doubleheader Friday against Connecticut.
“[In the first game], we looked like a different team when Casey [Gaynor] was out there,” he said.
After the junior’s nine-inning gem in game one, which led to a 5-2 win that snapped the Scarlet Knights’ five-game losing streak, it did not take long for the pitching problems that have plagued the team all season to reappear.
On only his third pitch of the game, freshman starter Charlie Law hit Huskies’ leadoff man Harold Brantley Jr. to start off an inning the Knights would never overcome.
Law, who was wincing in pain enough after his pitches to warrant a visit from the trainer while facing his fourth batter, went on to face nine batters in the inning, allowing six earned runs and recording only one out.
After the game, it was still unclear exactly what went wrong for Law.
“He complained a little bit about his elbow after he came out, but he’s capable of throwing much better than that,” Hill said. “He was throwing good in warm-ups but you never know what happens once you get out there. Warm-ups are warm-ups.”
RU tried to answer in the second inning, scoring three runs — one on a wild pitch and two on a single by sophomore right fielder Michael Lang.
Lang’s two-run single gave him his third and fourth runs batted in during the series.
After closing the gap to 6-3 in the second, the Knights’ bats went ice cold in the late innings and eventually fell 15-4.
From the sixth to eighth inning, RU failed to record a hit as the Huskies used three different pitchers in that time to keep the Knights at bay.
UConn’s offense remained persistent, driving in a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings, and tacked on five runs in the seventh.
“We gave up a six-run inning and that’s a hell of a hole to come out of,” Hill said. “And we almost did it, but we just couldn’t get any hits after that. We had a number of opportunities but we just couldn’t get a key base hit.”
In the first game, Gaynor combined a devastating curveball and a lights-out fastball to strike out eight batters while only letting up one earned run.
“That was one of the best jobs we’ve had here in a long, long time,” Hill said. “He was still throwing well at the end of the game. He did a magnificent job.”
The 137 pitches Gaynor threw were a season high for the junior, as he recorded his first complete game and win of the season.
With the help of several outstanding plays in the field, including a highlight reel catch by left fielder Jarred Jimenez in the eighth inning, Gaynor stayed out of trouble in all but the sixth inning, when he let up his only earned run.
“It felt good,” Gaynor said. “We had lost five straight so it was great just to get the win. And the fielding played great behind me.”