NJ.com: Rutgers baseball ready for 'statement weekend' at nationally-ranked Illinois

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – After four-straight non-conference home games, Rutgers baseball picks up Big Ten play again this weekend with a series starting Friday at No. 18 Illinois. The Scarlet Knights have won six consecutive series dating back to Old Dominion and are at 4-2 in the Big Ten, the best start in the league since joining in 2015.
 
The set pits two teams at a .667 winning percentage in the conference standings as the Fighting Illini enter at 6-3. RU has previously played seven games this season against an opponent appearing in a national poll, including taking 2-of-3 at then-No. 27 Florida Gulf Coast.
 
Most recently, Rutgers beat Lafayette at home, 4-2, to win for the 18^th time. That brings the team to within one win of matching last year's victory total and to a season-best seven game over .500. The Scarlet Knights will seek to be eight over for the first time since May 19, 2012 and look to claim seven-straight series of three games or more for the first time since a stretch from the end of 1992 to the beginning of 1993. It previously happened in the same season in 1988.
 
In the triumph over the Leopards, five pitchers combined to surrender just four hits, a season-low against, and two runs. The staff has held the opponent to two or less runs in a game six times already after achieving the feat on four occasions a year ago. Graduate student Karl Blum led the way with four shutout innings before redshirt sophomore Tommy Genuario took over with two of his own. Later on, junior Serafino Brito entered with the tying runs in scoring position and escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts. Redshirt junior Ryan Wares polished off the game by converting a save.
 
Offensively, both fifth-year senior Chris Folinusz and junior Jawuan Harris ripped RBI triples to provide run support on Wednesday. Folinusz has led the lineup of late with 12 hits over his last seven games, driving in six runs. The team ranks fourth in the Big Ten in batting average (.279) and scoring (6.5 runs per game). Senior Kyle Walker continues to pace the RU with a .457 on-base percentage, while junior Nick Matera owns four home runs and a .490 slugging percentage.
 
The Scarlet Knights will stick to the same pitching rotation as last week, lining up senior John O'Reilly, freshman Harry Rutkowski and sophomore Eric Reardon. O'Reilly has earned a win in four of his last five starts. He went six scoreless innings last time versus La Salle, which followed performances of nine and eight innings. Rutkowski has went deeper into the game in each of his last four starts. The left-hander went 8.1 innings last week and owns two Big Ten wins with a 0.66 ERA in conference play so far. Reardon, also a lefty, struck out five to beat La Salle in a five-inning start with two hits allowed. It will be his first Big Ten start this weekend.
 
Brito leads the staff with 17 appearances with four saves on the season. The pitchers have worked to a 4.23 ERA this year, down from 6.34 at this point in 2017.
 
THE OPPONENT
Illinois is ranked No. 18 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll, topping Maryland and Northwestern in Big Ten series, but falling to Iowa. The team sits at No. 29 in the latest NCAA RPI. Bren Spillane, who was named to the Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List, leads the nation in slugging (1.040), OPS (1.582) and total bases (104). He has 14 home runs to lead the Big Ten as well. Friday starter Andy Fisher pitched eight innings to beat Maryland on the road last time out.
 
The Fighting Illini lead the all-time ledger, 5-2, but the Scarlet Knights won last season's series in Piscataway. RU scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a tie to take the opener, 8-3. Illinois won game two by the score of 7-5, but Rutgers came back to win the rubber game, 8-7. That included a five-run comeback and a walk-off single by Christian Campbell. The previous meetings between the programs in Champaign were in 2015 and the initial encounter was in 1989.
 
UP NEXT
The Scarlet Knights travel to Monmouth for a 3 p.m. game on Tuesday. The next Big Ten series will be at Bainton Field versus Nebraska.
 
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