Baseball Travels to Maryland for Series with Big Ten Playoff Implications

Friday, May 11

College Park, Md.

6:30 PM

Rutgers University

Maryland

Baseball Travels to Maryland for Series with Big Ten Playoff Implications

May 10 | Baseball

Scarlet Knights enter weekend 1.5 games behind Michigan State for final playoff berth

Rutgers (24-20, 7-11) at Maryland (21-27, 6-11) - College Park, Md.
Game 45	May 11 - 6:30 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	Rutgers - RHP John O'Reilly (5-2, 5.28 ERA) Maryland - RHP Hunter Parsons (4-2, 3.67 ERA)
Coverage	BTN Plus \| Live Stats
Game 46	May 12 - 2 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	Rutgers - LHP Harry Rutkowski (4-5, 4.82 ERA) Maryland - RHP Taylor Bloom (2-7, 5.32 ERA)
Coverage	BTN Plus \| Live Stats
Game 47	May 13 - 1 p.m. ET
Probable Pitching Matchup	Rutgers - TBA Maryland - TBA
Coverage	BTN Plus \| Live Stats
Rutgers Links	Roster \| Schedule \| Fact Book \| Statistics

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – With two weekends of conference play remaining, Rutgers baseball will take a trip down to Maryland for its final Big Ten road series of the season. The three-game set will start Friday at 6:30 p.m. from Bob Turtle Smith Stadium in College Park. BTN Plus is set to provide the coverage.

The Scarlet Knights (7-11) are currently 1.5 games behind Michigan State (8-9) for the eighth and final spot to the Big Ten playoffs. Even though RU owns the tiebreaker on the basis of a series win in East Lansing, MSU did not play one game during its series against Nebraska to imbalance the number of Big Ten matchups. The Spartans will travel to first-place Minnesota this weekend, a team Rutgers will host at Bainton Field next week, and welcome fourth-place Ohio State to close. Nebraska (6-10) and Maryland (6-11) are also in the hunt as the race to Omaha heats up. The standings will be determined by winning percentage.

RU did not take the field for a midweek game due to final exams. The team previously split four home games last weekend, beating Columbia and taking the series opener against then-No. 13 Michigan. In the victory over the Wolverines, the offense posted 15 runs, the most for the Scarlet Knights in a Big Ten game since joining the conference. Fifth-year senior Chris Folinusz led the bats with six hits and six RBIs in the series, while redshirt freshman Dan DiGeorgio collected five hits to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.

For the season, senior Kyle Walker paces the lineup with a .310 batting average and a .438 on-base percentage. Junior Nick Matera is first with 18 extra-base hits, including five home runs, as classmate Carmen Sclafani holds a .443 slugging percentage. Junior Jawuan Harris has drawn 26 walks and stolen 20 bases to make it 80 in his career, sitting five steals away from matching the school record.

Senior John O'Reilly and freshman Harry Rutkowski will lead the rotation once again, pitching consecutively for the 12^th consecutive weekend. O'Reilly is second in program history with 47 career starts, fifth with 287.1 innings and tied for seventh with 169 strikeouts. The right-hander won his previous start at Maryland in 2015 by pitching seven innings with one earned run allowed. Rutkowski has made a start each weekend as a rookie, posting 52 strikeouts in 61.2 innings of work.

Junior Serafino Brito paces the pitching staff with 24 appearances in 2018, a mark that ranks second among Big Ten pitchers. The right-hander has collected 34 strikeouts in 35.0 innings with a .232 average against.

NOTES
Rutgers has turned 43 double plays after spinning 38 last season … RU leads the Big Ten with 14 triples … the Scarlet Knights are 19-4 this season when scoring six or more runs in a game and 54-13 since 2016 … the pitchers have held opponents to two or less runs in a game 10 times this year after doing that four times in all of 2017 … the offense is up to 106 RBIs with two outs … RU has 77 stolen bases as a team, ninth-most in a season in program history … a total of 29 players on the roster are from New Jersey.

THE OPPONENT
Maryland is in 11^th place in the standings, sitting two games behind Michigan State for eighth place. The team owns two Big Ten series win in six attempts, winning 2-of-3 over Northwestern and Michigan State. Overall, the Terrapins are 10-13 at home. Nick Dunn, who hit a walk-off homer to beat Towson on Wednesday, is hitting .339/.429/.587 to lead the lineup. Hunter Parsons will make the Friday start with a 3.67 ERA and a .227 average against.

Maryland leads the series over Rutgers, 12-9-1, dating back to 1936. That included taking three at Bainton Field last season. In the last meetings in College Park, the Scarlet Knights won 2-of-3. The teams had not played since 1953 prior to joining the Big Ten.

UP NEXT
Rutgers wraps up the regular season with four home games next week. That starts with a non-conference clash against Monmouth on Tuesday before welcoming Minnesota for a three-game set beginning Thursday.

#RBaseball is proud to partner with the @Vs_Cancer Foundation once again! Scarlet Knights raised $3,852 towards pediatric cancer research & care this year.

Release: https://t.co/6T6iJihr8S #CureKidsCancer pic.twitter.com/3Af7Qzaw9h
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 7, 2018

Still time to join the Scarlet Knight Baseball Challenge! Every dollar donated is allocated 100% to the program.

Pledge based on stats - current numbers...

Wins: 24
Home Runs: 14
Steals: 77
Strikeouts: 297

Link: https://t.co/Z1hcutzYJ5 pic.twitter.com/Cpbxof5DwV
— Rutgers Baseball (@RutgersBaseball) May 8, 2018

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