PISCATAWAY, N.J. -- Rutgers baseball will close out the season with a three-game series against No. 13 Iowa at Bainton Field starting Thursday. It will be the fourth weekend set versus a ranked opponent this year for the Scarlet Knights.

BTN Plus will cover all three games with Danny Breslauer and Jason Goldstein on the call. WRSU will carry the first two contests on the radio at 88.7 FM.

SENIOR DAY
Prior to the Saturday game, RU will recognize its three seniors with an on-field ceremony. The class includes Joe D'Annunzio (Scotch Plains, N.J.), Jon Young (Old Bridge, N.J.) and Vinny Zarrillo (Forked River, N.J.).

D'Annunzio enters the weekend with a nation-leading nine triples on the year. The total is the second-most in a single season in Rutgers history, as he has 16 in his career overall to rank third in the school record book (two off the leader). In addition, he has blasted four home runs this season and hit a career-best .282 with 23 RBIs. D'Annunzio is tied for seventh in the Big Ten with 13 steals in 2015, while sitting at fifth in slugging percentage in league games at .622.

A member of the Preseason Stopper of the Year watch list, Young has totaled 11 saves in his career, ranked tied for sixth in the program annals. The right-hander has appeared in a team-high 22 games out of the bullpen with a career-best 3.62 ERA. Young had a memorable outing May 2, 2014 with 6.2 innings of scoreless relief to earn a 14-inning win over Temple. Click here, here and here for recent feature stories on the right-hander.

Zarrillo has been a four-year contributor for the Scarlet Knights with 205 career games and 189 starts, being the only player to start all 52 games so far in 2015. He is ninth in school history with 223 hits and fifth in at bats at 736. Holding a .303 collegiate average overall, he won the Big East batting title in 2013 with a .407 mark. Zarrillo has served as a team captain this season and has earned academic all-conference honors three times so far.

SCOUTING RUTGERS
The Scarlet Knights will look to return to the win column after dropping all three at No. 3 Illinois last weekend. The finale was an offensive slugfest as RU blasted six home runs. It was the most for the team since April 10, 2010 at Notre Dame and the highest total for a Big Ten team in any game this season. Sophomore Tom Marcinczyk (Middlesex, N.J.) went deep twice to lead the attack, while D'Annunzio, junior Chris Suseck (Flemington, N.J.), junior John Jennings (Berkeley Heights, N.J.) and sophomore Chris Folinusz (Cranford, N.J.) each cranked one over the fence. The 13 total runs scored were the most this season against the Fighting Illini, who entered last weekend with the fourth-best ERA in the nation (2.31).

This will be the final series for Rutgers in its first trip around the Big Ten. The team previously earned series victories over Purdue and Minnesota.

Suseck totaled seven hits to lead the team in the last series, while D'Annunzio picked up six. For the season, Marcinczyk paces the Scarlet Knights with a .330 average, .417 on-base percentage (15th in the Big Ten) and a .508 slugging clip (12th). His seven home runs are tied for ninth in the league and conference teams have issued 13 walks to the outfielder, tied for the sixth-highest total. Zarrillo is second on the squad with 61 hits.

The stolen base has been a big part of the Rutgers attack, as the team has the second-highest total in the Big Ten at 73 (tied with Iowa). Four players are in double-digits with D'Annunzio and junior R.J. Devish (Beachwood, N.J.) leading the way at 13 apiece. In addition, Suseck has 12 and Zarrillo has 11. The team total is most since swiping 86 in 2010.

Rutgers will go with the pitching rotation of junior Howie Brey (Middletown, N.J.), freshman John O'Reilly (Northvale, N.J.) and junior Mark McCoy (Barnegat, N.J.) for the series. Brey leads the staff and is 15th in the Big Ten with 71.2 innings pitched, also leading RU with 54 strikeouts. O'Reilly is set to make his first weekend start after making seven midweek starts during the year. The right-hander holds a team-best 3.58 ERA, the second-lowest amongst all qualifying Big Ten freshmen pitchers. McCoy joins Brey as pitchers to start in all 13 weekend series. He is 10th in the conference with 20 called strikeouts and owns three pickoffs.

NOTABLE
Rutgers has played 15 games this season that have lasted at least three hours, including four of the last six, and two that have ended up before the two-hour mark ... the finale at Illinois took three hours, 56 minutes to rank as the longest of the year ... RU is 15-2 in games when leading after six innings this season and 10-4 when scoring at least six runs in a game ... the offense has collected double-digit hits 20 times, including seven of the last 10 games ... the defense has played errorless baseball 18 times ... the Scarlet Knights have 21 homers to top last season's home run total of 14 ... the team is 15-4 in the last four seasons when hitting multiple homers in a game ... RU has scored more in the third inning (35) than any other frame ... the current team average of .258 is the highest since the first game of the season ... Marcinczyk leads the team with 20 multiple-hit games, including eight in the last 10 outings ... D'Annunzio holds the active team lead with an 10-game hitting streak, a career-long and the longest by a Scarlet Knight this year ... Folinusz leads qualifying batters on the team with a .333 average with runners in scoring position and with four pinch hits ... Suseck leads with 11 two-out RBIs ... Devish has thrown out 14 runners attempting to steal and has been the starting catcher for all but one Big Ten game ... Rutgers needs one win this weekend to clinch a non-losing home record for the sixth consecutive year ... the team's 17 triples ties the Big Ten lead ... the catchers have combined for just five passed ball, tied for lowest in the league ... the last RU win over a team in the current top 25 was April 25, 2014 at home versus No. 10 Houston ... thirty-two of the 35 players on the roster hail from the state of New Jersey.

SCOUTING IOWA
The Hawkeyes are ranked No. 13 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll and are second in the Big Ten standings. The team has won all of its conference series in 2015, including taking all three from Minnesota last weekend, with wins in 14 of its last 16 games overall. The pitching staff has worked to a 2.84 ERA for the season, which is ranked second in the league. Tyler Peyton leads the bats with a .355 average, while Eric Toole has swiped 26 bases.

Head coach Rick Heller is in his second season at the helm of the program. Click here for more on Iowa baseball.

THE SERIES
Rutgers and Iowa have met six times previously with the Hawkeyes having won four times. The teams last met in 2010 in Florida. As it was with Ohio State, Minnesota and Michigan State earlier this season, it will mark the first trip to Bainton Field for Iowa.

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