LYNCHBURG, Va. (May 15, 2019) - Rutgers softball enters its first non-conference postseason tournament since 1996 as the National Invitational Softball Championship kicks off on Thursday at 10 a.m. against Appalachian State in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament at Liberty's Kamphuis Field.

The Scarlet Knights (28-24) earned the Big Ten's automatic qualifying bid to the NISC by virtue of finishing as the highest ranked regular season team not invited to the NCAA Tournament. Rutgers, placing sixth in the Big Ten, qualified for its first Big Ten Tournament since 2016 and is working toward its first 30-win season since 2013.

Rutgers has met Appalachian State once in 2007, when RU prevailed in a 12-10 shootout. The Mountaineers are a 31-win team for just the second time in program history and qualified for its first Sun Belt Championship by finishing the regular season in fifth place with a 13-13 record.



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HEAD-TO-HEAD


KNIGHT NOTES
RECENT SUCCESS: BY THE NUMBERS
• Rutgers qualifies for its first non-conference postseason tournament since 1996 (ECAC Tournament).
• Rutgers qualified for its first Big Ten Tournament since 2016 and has its highest seed at No. 6 since joining the league in 2015. This comes on the strength of its first winning season since 2015 and tying its most conference wins at 11 since the 2015 season.
• Winning seven of eight Big Ten games from April 12-23, the Scarlet Knights produced their best eight-game conference stretch since winning 11 straight games in the Atlantic 10 in 1990 (29 years).
• Rutgers won five straight Big Ten games for the first time since April 20-24, 2016.
• At No. 88, RU is in the Top 100 of the RPI rankings for the first time since April 12, 2015 (No. 70).
• Rutgers owns a pair of wins over RPI Top 50 teams this year (No. 38 Ohio State and No. 46 Indiana).

• Before April 23, Rutgers didn't have a walk-off home run since 2015. Freshman catcher Katie Wingert then hit three extra-inning, walk-off home runs in consecutive home games in Piscataway against Maryland, LIU Brooklyn and Michigan State. The feat was highlighted during a one-minute segment on ESPN's SportsCenter on the evening of May 3, as well as coming in at No. 8 on the Top 10 Plays. Wingert led the Big Ten in the regular season and ranks 24th nationally with 17 home runs.

• Wingert was named the Big Ten Freshman of the Week on April 15 - the Scarlet Knights' first such award since 2015 and Rutgers' first overall Big Ten weekly honoree since 2016. Junior outfielder Anyssa Iliopoulos is the reigning Big Ten Player of the Week heading into the Big Ten Tournament after hitting four home runs against Michigan State and totaling nine RBIs during a 4-1 week, including a game-tying, three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to force extra innings against the Spartans in the third game of their Big Ten series.

• Rutgers has hit a program-record 53 home runs this season. Nine different Scarlet Knights have hit a homer this season. Rutgers is 20-9 this year when hitting a home run, and 12-2 when hitting two or more. RU's five HR's against Army on Feb. 10 were also a school record for a single game.

• Senior shortstop Jess Hughes' 10th home run of the season officially set Rutgers' new school record at 52 home runs in a season. She ranks eighth among the NCAA Division I softball active leaders in runs scored with 202. She also ranks ninth with 137 career walks drawn.

• Freshman Penelope Russ made her collegiate debut on April 13 at Penn State, and has since gone 9-for-25 at the plate with two RBIs and three sacrifice hits. She started the last eight games at designated player, and is 9-for-22 (.409) over her last 10 games.

• In the 3-0 win at Penn State, freshman pitcher Corah Price recorded Rutgers' first seven-inning one-hitter since Alyssa Landrith beat UTSA on Feb. 15, 2014. Price faced the minimum 21 batters in the masterpiece. The rookie leads the staff in innings (177.2), ERA (2.92), WHIP (1.14) and strikeouts (113). Price's 9 strikeouts against Robert Morris were the program's most in a game since 3/18/16.

• With 28 victories in her debut season, head coach Kristen Butler becomes the winningest first-year head coach in Rutgers softball history. Pat Willis had 22 wins in 1980 and Jay Nelson had 20 wins in 2007.

• First-year head coach Kristen Butler won her first game at the helm of the Scarlet Knights on Saturday, Feb. 9 against Jacksonville State. A former SEC Player of the Year and record-setting professional softball player in the United States and Japan, Butler has spent the last four seasons turning around the program as head coach at Toledo while earning the 2018 Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year honor.

TRENDING
• Rutgers is 5-1 in extra-inning games.
• RU has won three games this season when trailing after six full innings.
• The Scarlet Knights are 12-3 when Katie Wingert hits a home run.
• Fourteen of Rutgers' games have been decided by one run (RU is 6-8).
• Rutgers is 20-2 when scoring 5+ runs, and  2-14 when an opponent scores 6+ runs.
• Rutgers is 19-8 when scoring first.
• Rutgers has scored in the first inning 23 times, and in 18 of the last 29.
• Rutgers is 12-2 when hitting 2+ home runs and 4-1 when hitting 3+ home runs.
• Rutgers is 17-2 when leading after 5.
• Jess Hughes leads the team with 18 multi-hit games, while Katie Wingert has a team-best 13 games with multiple RBIs.
• Wingert has a team-best 10-game streak of reaching base safely, while Aleah Marra has a four-game hitting streak.