PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers baseball will continue its 10-game homestand with a pair of 3 p.m. midweek games at Bainton Field. The Scarlet Knights (8-16) will host Manhattan (6-16) Tuesday before welcoming Monmouth (5-12) Wednesday. The latter will be broadcast on WRSU 88.7 FM.

SCOUTING RUTGERS
The Scarlet Knights are coming off a hard-fought series with Ohio State at Bainton Field. The Buckeyes took the opener, 13-4, but RU used a strong pitching performance from junior Howie Brey (Middletown, N.J.) and a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by freshman Kyle Walker (Piscataway, N.J.) to win 4-2 on Saturday. The rubber game turned into a pitcher's duel with OSU prevailing, 1-0, despite seven innings of one-run baseball by sophomore Gaby Rosa (Perth Amboy, N.J.). Rutgers threatened in the ninth inning with three hits, but fell short. The Scarlet Knights did take games in the middle of last week over NJIT and Rider and have won five of the last seven overall.

Offensively, sophomore Tom Marcinczyk (Middlesex, N.J.) leads with a .545 slugging and a .419 on-base percentage, reaching base safely in each of the past 18 games. The outfielder has collected 25 hits over that span. Freshman Milo Freeman (Millburn, N.J.) paces the bats with a .333 average in 20 games played, while senior Vinny Zarrillo (Forked River, N.J.) went 8-for-21 (.381) with a homer in five games last week. He needs nine hits to reach 200 for his career. The game-winning home run for Walker was the first of his career.

Sophomore Kevin Baxter (Waterford, N.J.) is slated to make the Tuesday start for RU. The right-hander has won his last five regular season starts, including last week versus NJIT. He allowed three runs over 5.2 innings in the outing. Out of the bullpen, senior Jon Young (Old Bridge, N.J.) and sophomore Max Herrmann (Rutherford, N.J.) each lead the staff with 10 appearances.

NOTABLE
The pitching staff has worked to a 2.43 ERA over the last seven games ... Rutgers has scored more in the third inning (22) than any other frame ... the team is 4-0 when reaching six runs in a game ... the defense has recorded eight games without an error ... the offense has eight games with at least 10 games ... the Scarlet Knights have picked up a stolen base in 10 of the last 11 games ... thirty-two of the 35 players on the roster are from the state of New Jersey.

SCOUTING MANHATTAN & MONMOUTH
The Jaspers and Hawks played each other over the weekend with Monmouth taking two-of-three at home to take the series. The first game went to 13 innings (5-4 Monmouth) and the finale took 11 (4-2 Manhattan) to decide. The two programs are both members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Manhattan left-hander Tom Cosgrove will make his fourth start of the season Tuesday. Jim Duffy is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Jaspers. Click here for more information.

Dean Ehehalt is in his 22nd season leading the Monmouth program, having won his 600th career game Saturday. RU skipper Joe Litterio was an assistant for Ehehalt for four seasons from 1995-98. Click here for more information.

UP NEXT
Rutgers will return to Big Ten play with a three-game series starting Friday versus Minnesota. It will be the second series of the season at Bainton Field.

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