PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Saint Joseph's baseball team fell behind early as Rutgers came away with an 11-1 win in the series opener between the teams at Bainton Field on Friday.

Rutgers (13-16) took the lead in the bottom of the first, getting three consecutive singles to start the game and take a 1-0 lead.  The Scarlet Knights would then load the bases with one out, but Tim Ponto induced a double play ball from Christian Campbell to avoid further damage.

RU tacked on three more in the second.  John Jennings reached on an error and advanced to second on a walk to Gaby Rosa two batters later.  R.J. Devish followed with a single to score Jennings before a single by Mike Carter made it a 3-0 game.  Chris Suseck followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Devish and extend the lead to 4-0.

Rosa hit a one-out single to score Jennings to push the lead to 5-0 in the third.  Rutgers had runners at the corners, looking for more, but Zach DeVincenzo came on and got a double play ball out of Devish on his first pitch to end the inning.  Campbell then hit a three-run double in the bottom of the fourth to extend the margin to eight.

Mike Martinez hit a pinch-hit two-run home run in the sixth before Jennings followed immediately after with a solo shot to give the Scarlet Knights an 11-0 edge.

Saint Joseph's (13-13) broke through for a run in the ninth as Graham Leib beat out an infield single that allowed Jake Meyers to score from third.

Howie Brey earned the win for Rutgers, improving to 3-3 after holding the Hawks to three hits in six innings.  Tim Ponto fell to 1-3 on the year for SJU after allowing three earned runs in two and a third innings.

The teams will play the second game of the weekend series at Bainton Field on Saturday.  First pitch is set for 2:00 p.m.