Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, DE – The University of Delaware baseball team posted an early four-run advantage over Rutgers during non-conference action on Tuesday, but the Scarlet Knights came storming back with five unanswered runs to notch a 5-4 victory at Bob Hannah Stadium.

After Rutgers (19-22-1) erased its early deficit and tied the game with a run in the eighth, a sacrifice fly by Donny Callahan in the ninth completed the comeback and secured the win for the Scarlet Knights.

For Delaware (15-27), Ryan Cuneo extended his career-long hitting streak to 15 games with a first-inning home run, while Chris Nehl added his third long ball of the season in the second. Ryan Reed (at right) also chipped in with three hits to pace the Blue Hen attack.

Following an early offensive surge by Delaware that put the Hens ahead, 4-0, in the third inning, Rutgers slowly chipped away at its deficit. In the fifth, the Knights finally got to starter Dan Richardson, who had cruised through the first four innings of play.

After the Hens’ senior righty struck out the first batter of the inning, Richardson allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases. A wild pitch brought home the first run, while an RBI ground out by Tom Edwards cut Delaware’s lead in half at 4-2.

The next inning, Rutgers came back for more as a Blue Hen error quickly put Jared Jimenez, the Knights’ lead-off man, on second. One batter later, Luis Feliz lined an RBI single back up the middle to pull the team within one.

Delaware seemed poised to strike back in the seventh when Bill Merkler doubled to center and Pat Dameron walked to put the first two batters on base. Kyle Davis laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position with only one out, but the team could not capitalize as the next two batters failed to get the ball out of the infield.

Still trailing by one, Rutgers struck again in the eighth with a clutch two-out rally. After Mike McGuire retired the first two batters, he walked Cegles and surrendered an RBI triple to Lang that knotted the game at four.

Fellow reliever Michael Londino did not fair any better in the ninth as he allowed a single to Jaren Matthews and walks to Jimenez and Feliz to load the bases with just one out. Callahan followed with a shallow fly ball to left that Matthews tagged up on. Reed, who was catching for Delaware, faked Matthews into believing there was no play at the plate, Deciding not to slide, the Rutgers runner was nearly gunned down when Jared Olson made a strong throw home, but Reed could not quite hang on to the ball as the Knights grabbed their first lead of the game.

Although Delaware put two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth, the team could not answer Rutgers’ late rally as Ryan Beard put the Hens away to record his third save of the season.

Kyle Bradley (1-2), who fired 5.1 innings of scoreless relief, picked up the win, while Londino (1-5) suffered the loss.

In the early part of the game, the Hens seemed to be in control after a two-run shot by Cuneo put Delaware up 2-0 in the first before Nehl’s home run in the second stretched the team’s lead to three. An unearned run in the third eventually pushed the squad’s advantage to four, but it was not enough to survive Rutgers’ late-inning run.

For the Scarlet Knights, the win avenged a 5-3 setback at the hands of the Hens earlier in the year.

Delaware will return to action tomorrow when the team hosts Wilmington University at 3 p.m.

Boxscore