By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer

CLEARWATER – The Bulls' Big East tournament run ended with a 2-1 loss to Rutgers on Friday night at Bright House Field.

Senior Alex Mendez started USF's last rally of the season with a leadoff single in the ninth and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by James Ramsay but the Bulls couldn't get the big hit it needed off reliever Nathaniel Roe, who got a strikeout and groundout to end the game.

“I'm proud of our guys, but we had the door open and didn't take advantage of it,” head coach Lelo Prado said. “You have to get to that point where you get to that door and finish the job. We can't be satisfied with this.”

Starter Joey Lovecchio gave USF 5 1/3 solid innings of work, surrendering two earned runs on eight hits and the senior didn't walk a batter before turning things over to the bullpen. Janick Serrallonga kept the Bulls in it by throwing 2 1/3 scoreless frames and Chad Taylor produced the key strikeout USF needed to get to the ninth down by only a run.

USF (36-22) tied the game up at 1 in the top of the fifth thanks to an RBI single by Blake Sydeski but the Bulls didn't do much more against Rutgers starter Tyler Gebler. The senior right-hander gave up the lone run and scattered five hits in 8 1/3 innings to help the Scarlet Knights advance to Saturday's 1 p.m. game against UConn. The Huskies got Friday off after scoring eight unanswered runs in a comeback win over USF on Thursday night.

“I'm proud of the way they bounced back after that loss last night,” Prado said. “Joey pitched great and we played a great game. They just pitched better and got the key hit when the needed to.”

The Bulls came up short in their pursuit of a return trip to the Big East tournament title game but accomplished quite a bit in 2013. USF finished 17-8 in conference play and 15 games better than .500 after getting off to a slow start.

“This team when we were 14-14 everybody wrote us off. We made a great run and I'm proud of them, but you have to finish,” Prado said.