PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Coming off back-to-back series wins, Rutgers baseball hosts Penn State this weekend at Bainton Field for a three-game set beginning Friday. The Scarlet Knights have won six of their last nine and to improve to 8-6, the team's best start to a Big Ten season through 14 games since joining the conference.
***All events at Rutgers Athletics venues operate in accordance with current statewide restrictions on gatherings. As a result, baseball games at this time are not open to the public.***
Big Ten Network+ is set to broadcast a one-camera stream for each game, with the WRSU call simulcasted Friday and Saturday. The radio play-by-play from WRSU for the first two games will be available locally on 88.7-FM and
online worldwide.
Friday WRSU: Jake Schmied & Alex Carmenaty
Saturday WRSU: Dylan Allen & Connor Strohm
Sunday Big Ten Network+: Alex Cohen
Live stats from Sidearm Sports are available as well to follow.
The Scarlet Knights are in fifth place in the Big Ten standings through four weeks. The program record for Big Ten wins in a season is nine, done in 23 games in 2019 and in 24 in 2016. Most recently, RU won 2-of-3 at Purdue, which followed a series victory over Ohio State.
In West Lafayette, each of the starting pitchers –
Harry Rutkowski,
Ben Wereski and
Brent Teller – worked at least seven innings and have combined to log 41 innings the last two times through the rotation with only six earned runs allowed (1.32 ERA).
Ryan Lasko started the weekend at Purdue with a solo homer in the first before adding a two-run shot in the third inning. With
Evan Sleight adding three hits and two RBIs, the run support was plenty for Rutkowski in a 7-5 win. The left-hander tied his career high with 8.1 innings pitched, recording eight outs on the first pitch, with just three hits permitted and no earned runs allowed until the ninth inning.
Wereski struck out eight with no walks over seven shutout innings in the Saturday game.
Cameron Love produced a go-ahead RBI in the seventh inning, with
Chris Brito lacing a three-run double to open a 4-0 lead. However, the Boilermakers scored seven runs in the last of the ninth to even the weekend.
Rutgers quickly bounced back with four runs the first, three in the second and seventh in the fourth to build an early lead on the way to a 15-4 victory in the rubber game. The Scarlet Knights totaled a season-high 16 hits, with Sleight, Brito and Lasko producing three apiece. Brito popped a grand slam, while Lasko registered three doubles on the way to earning
Big Ten Freshman of the Week. Teller worked seven innings, his longest outing in 2021, with only two runs allowed.
Hitting: Rutgers has hit 24 homers, the most for the team through 14 games of a season this century and sixth in the country at 1.71 per game. The most RU had hit in a Big Ten season previously was 12 in 2015 (24 games).
Brito leads the Big Ten with nine homers, looking to become the first Scarlet Knight since Patrick Kivlehan (14) in 2012 to reach double figures in a season. The third baseman also paces the league with 26 RBIs after posting eight in the Purdue series to move into second nationally at 1.86 per game. His slugging percentage of .927 sits fifth in the country, collecting 51 total bases so far.
Sleight and Lasko joined Brito with six hits last weekend, while
Mike Nyisztor went 4-for-6 with two walks and a hit by pitch to take over the team lead with a .393 season batting average and .528 on-base percentage.
Jordan Sweeney is second in the lineup with 17 RBIs.
Pitching: Each member of Rutgers' starting rotation brings at least 30 career starts into the weekend. Rutkowski did not allow an earned run with 11 strikeouts in six innings pitching the home opener versus Ohio State before the 8.1-inning performance last week. He has logged 194.0 career innings with 177 strikeouts, sixth-most in program history.
Wereski has not surrendered a run in his last 16.1 innings of work. The graduate student leads the Big Ten with a 1.44 ERA and a 0.68 WHIP, allowing just 5.09 hits per nine innings and a .159 batting average against. He has struck out 24 compared to three walks on the season.
Teller ranks 30
th among active Division I pitchers with 195 career strikeouts, 18
th with 241.2 inning pitched and 19
th with 39 games started. The right-hander beat Purdue last Sunday with seven innings pitched to match his longest collegiate outing.
Brian Fitzpatrick,
Nate McLain and
Kyle Muller have all worked a team-high five appearances in relief. Muller holds a 0.43 WHIP, while McLain has nine strikeouts in eight innings.
Eric Reardon's next game will be his 71
st, which would be tied for 10
th-most in program history.
Overall, the pitching staff ranks first in the league and 13
th nationally with only 2.81 walks allowed per nine innings, while sitting third in the Big Ten with a 1.28 WHIP.
Rutgers and Penn State have a long history, with the Nittany Lions leading the series, 41-32, in games since 1950. The Scarlet Knights have won four of the six Big Ten games at Bainton Field. Most recently, the teams split two games in University Park in 2019.
Tevin Murray pitched a career-high eight innings with nine strikeouts, no earned runs allowed and two hits permitted in a 5-1 win on May 4, 2019.
Rutgers travels to Northwestern for a three-game series starting Friday, April 9.
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