PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball will travel to Coral Gables, Fla., to open the season at Miami for the 10^th time in the last 11 seasons. The three-game series at Alex Rodriguez Park starts Friday at 7 p.m. The Scarlet Knights have won the Sunday game in each of the last two visits.
 
Each contest will be available to watch through ACC Network Extra, which is available through WatchESPN, and free audio links to listen are posted on ScarletKnights.com. Glen Gardner will provide color analysis on the radio broadcast.
 
Rutgers has been playing baseball since 1870 and is set for its fifth season as a Big Ten member. The team improved by six victories to finish at 25-25 in 2018, holding an 18-9 mark in non-conference play. The campaign was highlighted by reeling off a streak of six-straight series wins and taking seven-of-eight weekends during a stretch into mid-April. That included a 6-1 spring break trip in Florida that propelled the team to 12 victories in March, the most since 2001, and later to as high as seven games over .500 for the first time since 2012.
 
The 2019 squad returns 17 players with previous game experience for the Scarlet Knights and welcomes 16 newcomers. Two redshirt freshmen spent a year in the program. The roster features 26 from New Jersey, four from New York, two from Pennsylvania, one from California, one from Florida and one from Illinois.
 
Senior Carmen Sclafani is the most experienced player with 124 games the previous three seasons. A Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, he led the lineup with a .427 slugging percentage on seven doubles, two triples and three home runs last season. His .812 OPS is the highest among returners. Classmate Tyler McNamara joined Sclafani with a perfect 4.0 GPA during the fall semester and had a .433 on-base percentage as a catcher in 2018. Luke Bowerbank is the third senior position player and was the toughest hitter to strike out in the Big Ten a year ago, once per 13.8 at bats. The outfielder hit 19-for-51 (.373) with runners in scoring position.
 
On the mound, senior Serafino Brito is set to make the Opening Day start. The right-hander has logged a staff-high 57 career appearances with 25 starts, collecting 127 career strikeouts compared to 34 walks over 178 innings. It will be his fifth appearance against Miami (third start). Sophomore Harry Rutkowski, who joined sophomore Mike Nyisztor and junior Kevin Welsh on the Big Ten Preseason Honors List, will take the ball for game two. He started 13 games as a rookie, including the Sunday victory at Miami, and led the pitching staff with 54 strikeouts. For the series finale, junior Tevin Murray, also a left-hander, is set to make his first collegiate start. He has previously appeared in 24 games, not allowing a run in five of his final six outings in 2018. That was part of holding Big Ten opponents to a .135 average against with a 1.59 ERA in nine conference games. Rutgers has nine newcomers on the staff.


 
NOTES
It will be the 37^th consecutive season Rutgers opens the season on the road (last opened at home in 1982 versus Columbia) … Scarlet Knights led the Big Ten after the regular season with 50 double plays turned last season … the pitching staff lowered its season ERA from 6.11 to 4.82 … RU has stolen 277 bases over the past three years compared to 179 by opponents … the offense had 111 RBIs with two outs … the Scarlet Knights went 19-5 last season when scoring six or more runs in a game and are 54-14 since 2016 … the pitchers held opponents to two or less runs in a game 10 times last year after doing that four times in 2017 … RU opens the season with six consecutive weekends on the road … it will be the 37^th-straight year playing a game in Florida.
 
THE OPPONENT
Miami is under new leadership with Gino DiMare taking over as head coach. It will be his 20^th season on the UM baseball staff. The Hurricanes finished 28-26 last season. Freddy Zamora led the offense with a .412 slugging percentage, while Dylan Cloonan had a .415 on-base percentage. Evan McKendry will start on Friday after striking out 114 in 87 innings a year ago.
 
THE SERIES
Miami leads the all-time series, 63-14, dating back to 1967, with the teams splitting the last four meetings. Last season, the Hurricanes won 7-1 and 8-5 before the Scarlet Knights claimed the series finale, 7-5. RU overcame a five-run deficit by scoring seven runs in the top of the fourth. Rutgers won the 2017 Sunday contest as well, 17-6.
 
UP NEXT
Rutgers returns south to take part in three games at the University of New Orleans starting Friday. The Scarlet Knights will take on Butler, New Orleans and Chicago State in that order next weekend.
 
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