PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball heads to Michigan State this weekend for its first Big Ten road trip of the season. The three-game set will start with a Friday doubleheader beginning at noon, with game three scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Scarlet Knights began conference play at home by taking 2-of-3 over Penn State on the strength of the starting pitching. Senior John O'Reilly tossed his first career complete game with no earned runs allowed to claim the opener, 4-1. Following up, freshman Harry Rutkowski worked 6.2 scoreless and freshman Collin Kiernan and junior Serafino Brito closed it out to secure the 1-0 victory. RU has won four-straight weekend series for the first time since 2010 by defeating Old Dominion, Army, Florida Gulf Coast and Penn State.

Most recently, Rutgers took a 6-5 loss to Princeton in the first meeting between the programs since 2012. Junior Nick Matera knocked in three runs and sophomore Eric Reardon did not allow an earned run in a 4.1-inning start.

Senior Kyle Walker reached base three times on Wednesday and a singled in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest by a Scarlet Knight since Jeff Melillo attained 19 in 2012. He is ranked second in the Big Ten and No. 19 nationally with a .426 batting average, while also posting the third-best on-base percentage in the league at .484. Matera paces the team with eight extra-base hits, including two home runs, as freshman Mike Nyisztor owns 19 RBIs and 18 runs. Redshirt freshman Dan DiGeorgio has also scored 18 times. In addition, junior Jawuan Harris is 8-for-9 in stolen bases attempts this season to take over sole possession of third place in school history at 68 swipes.

Overall, the Scarlet Knights are averaging 6.8 runs per game to rank No. 50 nationally. The team is 10-3 when plating six or more runs, has scored first in 16-of-22 games this season and is five games better than last year's pace at this point.

Rutgers will stick with the same rotation on the mound led by O'Reilly, with Rutkowski and freshman Eric Heatter following. O'Reilly ranks third in the school record books with 41 career starts, retiring the final 13 batters faced to polish off his nine-inning effort last week. The Scarlet Knights have won all six games started by Rutkowski this season. The left-hander has struck out seven in each of his last two outings and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Monday. Heatter ranks first in the conference with only 1.38 walks allowed per nine and 5.75 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Out of the bullpen, Brito leads the staff with 13 appearances and three saves so far, picking up 21 strikeouts in 11.2 innings.

THE OPPONENT
Michigan State enters the weekend on a six-game losing streak, falling to Michigan in its first Big Ten series. Dan Chmielewski leads the lineup with 11 RBIs, while Justin Antoncic has a .819 OPS. The offense is averaging 3.3 runs per game. On the mound, Riley McCauley will make the start in the opener holding a 4.24 ERA.

RU will look to snap a seven-game losing streak to MSU, with six of those in league play. The last Big Ten set between the teams was contested in East Lansing in 2016 and the Spartans won each of the closely-contested games by the scores of 5-2, 5-4 and 6-5. The last Scarlet Knight victory in the series was on March 19, 1985.

UP NEXT
In a change in the schedule, Rutgers will play Villanova just once next week. It will be a Wednesday game at Bainton Field starting at 3 p.m. The next series will be at home versus LaSalle.

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