PISCATAWAY, N.J. (February 25, 2010) – The Rutgers baseball team will escape the snow of the northeast and return to the Sunshine State this weekend to compete in the second annual Big Ten/BIG EAST Baseball Challenge this weekend in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Scarlet Knights will play at 10 a.m. each morning Friday through Sunday. RU will face Iowa at Al Lang Stadium, Northwestern on Saturday at Raymond Naimoli Complex, and Purdue on Sunday at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater, Fla.

 

A live webcast of Friday’s game against Iowa will be available on collegebaseball360.com. Fans can access the webcast through scarletknights.com.  

 

All 10 members of the Big Ten Conference will face off against 10 of the 12 members of the BIG EAST Conference with Pittsburgh and Georgetown competing elsewhere this weekend. This will be Rutgers’ first appearance in the event.

 

The Scarlet Knights head into the three-day event in search of their first victory of 2010 after dropping all three games at No. 12 Miami last weekend. After a 12-1 setback in the season opener, RU held late leads in its next two games, losing 10-8 to the Hurricanes Saturday night and falling, 9-7, on a Miami three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth in Sunday’s series finale.

 

Junior outfielder/designated hitter Pat Biserta (Pt. Pleasant, N.J.) owned a .333 batting average with a pair of home runs in the opening series against the Hurricanes. In three plate appearances on the weekend, sophomore outfielder Ryan Kapp (Toms River, N.J.) hit two doubles. He drove in a pair of runs on the ladder extra-base hit breaking a 5-5 tie in the ninth inning of Sunday’s series finale.  

 

All three starters for Rutgers worked into the fifth inning and 12 Scarlet Knight hurlers saw action on the mound in the opening series. Senior righty Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) will face Iowa in the weekend opener, while senior lefty Dennis Hill (Hillsdale, N.J.) will work Saturday’s contest against Northwestern and sophomore righty Willie Beard (Spotswood, N.J.) will face Purdue in Sunday’s game.

 

Seven Scarlet Knights made their collegiate debut and another made his Scarlet Knight debut in the opening series at Miami. True freshman second baseman Steve Nyisztor (Toms River, N.J.) started all three games and collected three hits in the opening series.

 

Iowa split its first two games of the season with a 19-11 win against Illinois State and a 13-8 loss to host Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tenn. last weekend.

 

Sophomore second baseman Mike McQuillan leads the Hawkeyes’ offense with six hits in 12 at-bats, including a pair of home runs and a double. He drove in seven runs in the two contests. Sophomore lefty Jarred Hippen will be on the mound for the Hawkeyes. He didn’t allow an earned run in 3.2 innings of work against Illinois State last weekend, however gave up four unearned runs on five hits without a strikeout in the contest.

 

Friday will be the sixth all-time meeting between Rutgers and Iowa. The Hawkeyes own a 3-2 edge in the series. The schools last met two seasons ago on a neutral field at Stetson University in Deland, Fla. with Iowa taking two of three games from RU. Thirteen current Scarlet Knights played in the 2008 series. 

 

Northwestern enters the weekend 0-4 on the season with a pair of losses to George Mason (15-1 and 25-2), and defeats to Winthrop (8-4) and Marist (10-2) last weekend. Senior catcher/outfielder Chad Noble leads the Wildcats; offense with a .467 batting average and a triple and home run through the first four games. Sophomore righty Francis Brooke will be on the mound for Northwestern against RU. He didn’t allow a run in two relief appearances last weekend, spanning 4.2 innings with five strikeouts.

 

Rutgers and Northwestern have met twice before with both games occurring during a three-day span of the 1969 season. Both games were one-run decisions as the Scarlet Knights defeated the Wildcats, 3-2, on March 26 and lost, 6-5, on March 29.  

 

The weekend tournament will serve as the 2010 opener for Purdue. The Boilermakers posted a 25-26 overall record last season, including an 11-12 mark in the Big Ten. They lost three of their top four hitters and five position starters from last season. Sophomore infielder Eric Charles is coming off a Freshman All-American season where he hit .371 with nine doubles, three triples and two home runs. He scored 45 runs in 45 games played. Senior lefty Matt Jansen will toe the rubber for Purdue in Sunday’s contest against Rutgers. He owned a 4-6 record with a 6.63 earned run average in 14 starts last season. The Boilermaker registered 60 strikeouts in 72.0 innings in 2009.