PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Winners of the last four games, Rutgers baseball travels to Peoria, Arizona, to face Washington State in a three-game series starting Friday. The trip will mark the Scarlet Knights' first venture into Arizona and the furthest west the program has ever trekked to play.
The set will be played at the Peoria Sports Complex, the spring training home of both the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners. Friday's game will be contested inside the Main Stadium, while Saturday and Sunday are set to take place on Mariners Field #2. Admission is free. Washington State will serve as the home team and bat second each day.
Listen: A free radio call will be available at ScarletKnights.com or through the Scarlet Knights App (pending Internet connection).
Live Stats: StatBroadcast
Most Recently: The Scarlet Knights topped Wagner, 15-3, Tuesday in the home opener at Bainton Field. Using a bases-loaded walk drawn by redshirt sophomore
Tim Dezzi and a three-run triple by senior
Kevin Welsh, RU opened up a 4-0 lead after one inning. The Seahawks rallied for three in the third, but the bullpen entered and worked six scoreless frames. Sophomore
Jared Bellissimo was credited the win after stranding the bases loaded on a pair of strikeouts to preserve a one-run lead at the time. Rutgers posted 11 unanswered runs from there, including a three-run homer by redshirt sophomore
Richie Schiekofer. Schiekofer knocked in a career-high four runs and scored four times, while junior
Mike Nyisztor reached 4-of-5 trips and crossed home three times.
In the last weekend series, the Scarlet Knights picked up their first February weekend sweep since 2012 and first road sweep since March 2017 with three wins at North Florida, 14-3, 16-4 and 7-6. The 37 runs scored in the set were the most in a three-game series by RU since May 2013. Rutgers hit .377/.470/.500 as a team on 46 hits.
Hitting: Rutgers has plated 52 runs over the past four games, the best four-game stretch since tallying 56 from March 10-14, 2010. That has vaulted RU into the Big Ten lead with 8.7 runs per game, ranked 15
th nationally.
Sophomore
Chris Brito and Nyisztor have both reached safely in all seven games, each driving in nine runs. Brito is slashing a team-best .458/.563/.875 with three homers. Sophomore
Peter Serruto has crushed two long balls on a .522 on-base percentage. In addition, redshirt junior
Danny DiGeorgio has collected nine hits over the past four games.
Pitching: RU will stick with the same rotation as the past two weeks: junior
Harry Rutkowski, fifth-year senior
Tommy Genuario and senior
Tevin Murray. Rutkowski went seven innings with only two runs and no walks permitted to beat North Florida, while Genuario also posted a quality start with three runs allowed over six frames to win on Saturday. Murray surrendered three runs in the first in the Sunday victory, but rebounded to post four consecutive scoreless frames after that, striking out six in the outing.
Out of the bullpen, redshirt junior
Kyle Muller has not allowed a run in 5.1 innings this season. Sophomore
Parker Scott paces the staff with a 0.99 WHIP in 8.1 innings.
The Cougars split four games at Hawaii last weekend. Kyle Manzardo is hitting .379/.441/.552 on a team-high 11 hits, while Collin Montez has driven in seven. Friday starter Zane Mills struck out seven over seven innings with only five hits and two runs permitted to beat Hawaii last time out. The pitching staff holds a 3.21 ERA through eight games.
Head coach Brian Green is in his first season after posting a 158-122 record in five previous years leading New Mexico State.
All-Time: Washington State lead, 2-0
Last Game: Washington State 16, Rutgers 3 (March 22, 1990 in Coral Gables, Fla.)
Rutgers and Washington State have two prior meetings on record, the first at the 1950 College World Series and the second in Coral Gables, Florida, during spring break in 1990. The Cougars won both.
1950 CWS Recap: On Monday, June 19, Rutgers met Washington State in the winner's bracket final... The game was a terrific pitcher's duel between Al Willenbrock for Rutgers and Rod Keogh for the Cougars... Willenbrock gave up an early home run to Ted Tappe of the Cougars, but the Scarlet tied it in the fourth on a triple by Jim Monahan and an infield out... That would prove to be the only hit off Keogh, but he walked eight and was frequently in trouble... In the seventh, Rutgers loaded the bases, with Willenbrock up... without warning, (Rutgers later said it was not a called play), the runner on third tried to steal home and was tagged out... As he broke, the runner on second started toward third, then hesitated, and was eventually run down and tagged out to complete an unusual double play, killing the potential rally... In the top of the ninth, Washington State loaded the bases with no outs... Don Paul grounded sharply to third baseman Steve Kalapos, who threw home for the force there... catcher Hardy Peterson then threw to first to double Paul, and Suba, the first baseman, then spotted Gordon Brunswick, the runner at second, trying to make a surprise dash to home... Suba threw back to Peterson, who tagged Brunswick to complete the triple play... It was the second of three triple plays in the CWS... In the top of the 10th, Washington State finally broke through on an outfield error, hit batter and a two-run double by Terry Carroll to take a 3-1 lead, and Keogh completed his one hitter by retiring the side in the bottom of the 10th... Washington State improved to 3-0, and Rutgers fell to 2-1... Van Cleef, after going seven-for-nine in the first two games was held to 0-for-5...
Against the PAC-12: 0-6
June 4, 2007: Oregon State 5, Rutgers 2 (NCAA Regional in Charlottesville, Va.)
June 1, 2007: Oregon State 5, Rutgers 1 (NCAA Regional in Charlottesville, Va.)
March 8, 1998: Cal 11, Rutgers 5 (Minneapolis, Minn.)
March 22, 1990: Washington State 16, Rutgers 3 (Coral Gables, Fla.)
May 21, 1988: Stanford 8, Rutgers 1 (NCAA Regional in New Britain, Conn.)
June 19, 1950: Washington State 3, Rutgers 1 (College World Series in Omaha, Neb.)
Rutgers is set for five games next week, starting Tuesday at St. Joseph's at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday is a home game at Bainton Field versus St. Peter's before heading to Old Dominion for the three-game weekend series.
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