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PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball opens its seven-game spring break trip with a weekend series versus Army West Point at City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Florida. The first of three games will be Friday at 7 p.m., as the Scarlet Knights and Black Knights will meet on the diamond for the first time since 2000.
 
The set will be contested at the former spring training home of the Boston Red Sox and is located at 2201 Edison Ave. in Fort Myers. RU will be the home team in the first and last game of the series.
 
This will be Rutgers' third trip to the Sunshine State in four weeks to open the season. That includes a three-game set at then-No. 9 Miami as well as games at a neutral field in Port Charlotte, Florida, versus then-No. 17 Indiana, St. Bonaventure and Boston College. Overall, RU has 13 of its first 18 games in the state counting an upcoming midweek contest against FIU in Port Charlotte and three at Florida Gulf Coast to round out the trip.
 
Most recently, the Scarlet Knights took a 12-3 loss to Iona at Bainton Field on Tuesday. Sophomore Kevin Welsh led the team with a 3-for-3 performance at the plate. That was coming off a weekend where RU took 2-of-3 at Old Dominion. Both of those victories took place after coming back from a deficit of three or more.
 
Both junior Nick Matera and fifth-year senior Chris Folinusz have reached base in all 11 games this season, with Folinusz on an eight-game hitting streak. Senior Kyle Walker has a hit in his last seven games, batting 10-for-22 so far with a .536 on-base percentage. Junior Jawuan Harris owns a team-best 10 RBIs and seven stolen bases.
 
On the mound, senior John O'Reilly is set to make his 39^th career start on Friday, which would move the right-hander into fourth in program history in games started. He ended his last outing at Old Dominion by posting five consecutive scoreless innings. Freshman Harry Rutkowski will follow on Saturday with 13 strikeouts in 14.2 innings of work as a rookie.
 
Both redshirt junior Ryan Wares and junior Serafino Brito lead the staff with five appearances, as Wares has held opponents to a .192 average against. Freshman Eric Heatter leads the team with 16 strikeouts.
 
THE OPPONENT
Army West Point is set to play its third Big Ten opponent after previously taking one game over Michigan and two at Maryland. The Black Knights enter the weekend on a three-game winning streak, beating Bryant, Niagara and Boston College in Cary, North Carolina, last weekend. Jon Rosoff leads the lineup at .394/.553/.424, while Jacob Hurtubise has swiped eight bases. Left-hander Tyler Giovinco will take the ball in the series opener with 21 strikeouts in 17.0 innings of work this season.
 
This will be the first meeting between the Scarlet Knights and the Black Knights since playing in the opening round of the 2000 NCAA Regional hosted by RU in Montclair. Rutgers won by the score of 4-3. The series goes back to 1892 with each side winning 23 times. The Scarlet Knights having won the past five contests dating back to 1992.
 
UP NEXT
Rutgers will stay on the western coast of Florida to take on FIU for the first time since 2014 on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at North Regional Park in Port Charlotte.
 
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