For the third time this week, an Omaha baseball game came down to the last pitch.

Fortunately for the Mavericks, Noah Greise hammered it in to left field.

The designated hitter roped a 1-2 pitch from Rutgers closer Dale Stanavich down the line to score pinch runner Garrett Kennedy from second base with the lone run of a 1-0 win Friday at Tal Anderson Field.

Omaha (6-11) managed only three hits in the game. Greise made sure the last one counted most.

"That's a really good team we just played," Omaha coach Evan Porter said. "The whole game was kind of dominated by pitching and defense. It just came down to a couple of big moments in the late innings."

Leadoff batter Harrison Denk drew a four-pitch walk from Stanavich, who came into the game with four saves and an earned-run average of 0.00. Kennedy entered to pinch run for him, then stole second with Greise at the plate after two strikeouts. He raced home as Greise's hit rolled to the wall in left field.

The Mavericks poured out of the dugout to mob Greise near first base as Kennedy crossed the plate. His game-winning single off Stanavich (0-2) hit came after he'd initially fallen behind in the count 0-2.

"I was trying to sit soft away," Greise said. "And then he came in, and I just turned and burned on it."

Joey Machado (3-1) earned the win in relief after he and starter Caleb Riedel repeatedly escaped trouble to keep the Scarlet Knights (12-4) scoreless. Riedel gave up a leadoff triple to Tony Santa Maria in the second but got out of the jam with a groundout with the infield in, a strikeout and a flyout to left field.

The lefty also got Rutgers to strand a runner at third in the fourth and fifth innings. He surrendered three hits and walked three in his five scoreless frames. Machado also gave up three hits in four innings.

The Scarlet Knights put their first two batters on in the top of the ninth. Machado then got Josh Kuroda-Grauer to pop up a bunt before striking out Garrett Callaghan and getting Mike Nyisztor to line out.

Rutgers left 10 runners on base in the game. Seven of them were in scoring position in different innings.

"There were multiple times where our defense stepped up and made plays or our pitchers stepped up and got out of some really tough situations," Porter said. "I'm proud of our guys for their effort tonight."

Omaha had just two hits off Scarlet Knights starter Jared Kollar, who struck out 10 batters while pitching into the eighth. Devin Hurdle and Drew Reetz recorded one-out doubles off of him in separate innings. In between those two hits, Kollar retired 18 consecutive Maverick batters – half of them by strikeout.

"The offense was not what we usually are," Greise said. "But in the late innings, we stepped up."