PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball begins the second half of its Big Ten schedule with a three-game series at Purdue starting Friday. The Saturday contest, slated for 6 p.m., will air live on Big Ten Network with Brandon Gaudin and Scott Pose on the call. BTN Plus has the stream on Friday and Sunday.
The Scarlet Knights, winners of four of the last five, are currently at seven games over .500 to match their season high, looking to become eight over for the first time since May 19, 2012. Already having three more wins than all of last year, RU has won seven of its last eight series. That is the most series victories since 2013. The last season with eight weekends to the ledger was 2010.
RU is off to its best start in league play since joining the Big Ten in 2015 at 6-6. That includes winning 2-of-3 over Penn State, Michigan State and Nebraska. The mark enters the weekend in ninth place, as the top eight will qualify for the conference tournament. Purdue is 7-4 to be tied for fifth in the standings.
Most recently, Rutgers posted its largest shutout win since 2003 with a 17-0 rout of Saint Peter's. In a balanced offensive attack, 10 different players recorded a hit, nine scored and eight drove in at least one run to rack up a season-high in runs. Fifth-year senior
Chris Folinusz collected a team-best four RBIs, while junior
Carmen Sclafani touched home five times, including a home run. Sophomore
Eric Reardon picked up the victory on the mound with two hits allowed over a career-high six innings. The three hits permitted in the game were a season low.
In the last weekend series, the Scarlet Knights beat Nebraska twice. Senior
John O'Reilly pitched into the ninth inning on Friday to win for the fifth time in seven starts, as classmate
Kyle Walker came through with a go-ahead RBI double in the sixth inning of the 4-2 triumph. The Cornhuskers responded by taking the Saturday contest, 12-4, but RU rallied to win the rubber game. Down 4-2 in the fifth, junior
Nick Matera hit a three-run homer with two outs to put the home team ahead, while Sclafani copied to make it back-to-back long balls. Redshirt sophomore
Tommy Genuario tossed 3.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to hold the lead.
Part of the reason for an offensive uptick of 41 more runs scored at this point compared to last season is having 90 RBIs with two outs. Opponents have been held to 70 in that situation, as the team ERA is down to 4.44 from 6.09 through 37 games.
Sclafani has two hits in each of the last three games, including homers the last two times out, to raise his batting average to a .327 and slugging percentage to .490, both team highs. He is hitting .350 against the Big Ten. Walker holds the lead in season on-base percentage at .439. Matera, who was named to the Johnny Bench Award Watch List, paces the lineup with 11 doubles and five long balls, while junior
Jawuan Harris, who has reached base safely in each of the last 10 games, has 77 career stolen bases to sit eight away from matching Doug Alongi (1991-93) for the school record.
The production has come from different parts in the lineup, with six different Scarlet Knights registering more than 20 RBIs and sophomore
Kevin Welsh right there at 19. Freshman
Mike Nyisztor is first with 29 and is tied with redshirt freshman
Dan DiGeorgio by scoring 31 runs.
Rutgers will stick with the same weekend rotation as last week, led by O'Reilly. Freshman
Harry Rutkowski and graduate student
Karl Blum will follow. O'Reilly, who is second in school history with 45 career starts and ninth with 164 strikeouts, has helped the team to 7-1 in the last eight series openers. The right-hander has worked at least eight innings in three of his four Big Ten starts, holding Nebraska to 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position last time. Last year against Purdue, he took a perfect game in the seventh inning by retiring the first 19 hitters, finishing with seven strikeouts. Rutkowski will look to bounce back, but still leads the staff with 47 strikeouts and a 3.83 ERA as a rookie. The left-hander beat Michigan State and Penn State in Big Ten play, also holding Illinois to two runs in six innings. Rounding out the weekend, Blum pitched eight innings in two starts last week with two runs allowed. He held the Cornhuskers to five hits over four innings and has permitted just those two runs in his last 13.1 innings, which spans five appearances.
Junior
Serafino Brito paces the pitching staff with 21 appearances in 2018, a mark that ranks first among Big Ten pitchers. The right-hander has collected 28 strikeouts in 29.0 innings with a .233 average against. Genuario, who transitioned to the staff this season after being an outfielder, has not allowed a run in his last five appearances, which spans 9.2 innings. The bullpen as a group has held opponents to 128 hits in 139.2 innings this season.
NOTES
Rutgers has turned 36 double plays this season after having 38 all of last season … RU leads the Big Ten with 21 triples … the Scarlet Knights are 17-4 this season when scoring six or more runs in a game and 52-13 since 2016 … the pitchers have held opponents to two or less runs in a game nine times this year after doing that four times in all of 2017 … Rutgers has 33 stolen bases in its last 13 games, ranking No. 24 nationally at 1.78 per game … the offense has 21 games reaching double-digit hits and nine games with 10 or more runs … a total of 29 players on the roster are from New Jersey.
THE OPPONENT
Purdue enters the weekend on a five-game winning streak. That includes a pair of midweek wins over Indiana and Chicago State, plus a sweep at Maryland in its last Big Ten series. The Boilermakers also previously swept Penn State on the road and took one league game against the Hoosiers to reach 7-4. Jacson McGowan leads the team at .336/.455/.634 with 11 home runs, 43 RBIs and 28 walks. Friday starter Tanner Andrews owns a 2.35 ERA, holding opponents to a .264 average against, and closer Ross Learnard has seven saves on a 0.81 ERA. He is the reigning Big Ten Pitcher of the Week.
The Scarlet Knights lead the all-time series, 5-3, dating back to 1999. That includes two series victories by dropping the opener and coming back to win the next two. Rutgers' first Big Ten set came at Alexander Field in 2015.
Milo Freeman sparked the team to a win in the decisive game by going 4-for-4 with three stolen bases. Last season, the Boilermakers won by the score of 7-6 on Friday before the Scarlet Knights flipped the result by overcoming a three-run deficit. That led to the rubber game when O'Reilly flirted with perfection, Harris reached base four times and Folinusz banged two doubles in an 8-2 triumph.
UP NEXT
Rutgers hosts four games at Bainton Field next week, beginning with Columbia Tuesday at 1 p.m. The next Big Ten series is against Michigan.
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