PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball is set to face its first ranked opponent of the season in a trip to Ray Fisher Stadium for a three-game series against No. 17 Michigan. The Scarlet Knights are 7-5 on the road this season, having previously accumulated an 11-47 record in Big Ten road games, with a high of three wins in a campaign in 2016.
 
RU has played 24 games, which represents a standard Big Ten schedule for comparison. The program set Big Ten team season records in wins (12), runs (141), homers (35), total bases (356), slugging percentage (.430), on-base percentage (.353), strikeouts recorded (196), least walks allowed (72), batting average against (.254) and saves (7).
 
"I feel pretty good about where we are right now," head coach Steve Owens said. "We've been quite solid in many areas, have shown improvement and have been competitive each and every weekend. We've tied two weekends, lost two weekends and won three weekends, which puts us at .500."
 

COVERAGE

Big Ten Network+ is set to broadcast each of the three contests. A Big Ten Network+ subscription gives access to live streaming produced by the Big Ten Network in partnership with the member schools of the Big Ten Conference. A television provider is not needed to subscribe.
 
A free radio broadcast for each game this weekend will be available through ScarletKnights.com and the Scarlet Knights App. Live stats from Sidearm Sports are available as well to follow.
 

SCOUTING RUTGERS

The Scarlet Knights won their past two road series, taking 2-of-3 at Purdue and Northwestern, to claim multiple road weekends for the first time in the same year in Big Ten play. The team entered the season with four Big Ten road series victories in the previous five conference seasons.
 
Most recently, RU dropped 3-of-4 at home to Iowa to even to a 12-12 record. Evan Sleight highlighted the win in the series finale with six RBIs, including a grand slam. Down 7-1 entering the bottom of the eighth, a hit by pitch and two singles loaded the bases for Chris Brito, who drew ball four to force in a run. Sleight then delivered the team's sixth grand slam of the season to make it 7-6. After Eric Reardon tossed a perfect ninth, Mike Nyisztor led off the bottom half with single before Ryan Lasko was hit by a pitch and Brito singled to reload the bases. Sleight fell behind 0-2, but was plunked by a breaking ball to bring in the tying run. Danny DiGeorgio then put the ball in play for a walk-off RBI. Jared Bellissimo had previously pitched 4.1 innings of shutout long relief to keep RU within striking distance.
 
Richie Schiekofer, who had nine hits at Northwestern, joined Lasko with five hits in the series. Lasko drove in five runs and scored six times with a .421 on-base percentage to win Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the third time in four weeks. Rutgers has claimed the award 5-of-7 weeks this season.
 

 
Hitting: Rutgers has hit 35 homers, the most for the team in a season since crushing 37 in 53 games in 2017. The previous high for long balls in a Big Ten season was 12 in 2015 (24 games). Overall, the Scarlet Knights rank 11^th nationally with 1.46 homers per game.
 
Brito owns a team-high nine homers and seeks to become the Scarlet Knight since Patrick Kivlehan (14) in 2012 to reach double figures in a season. The third baseman ranks third in the Big Ten with 27 RBIs, while Lasko has hit five homers in the last seven games to move into fourth in the league with a .688 slugging percentage. Nyisztor leads the team with a .455 on-base percentage.
 
Pitching: Harry Rutkowski is set to make his 25^th career start to open a weekend and is nine strikeouts shy of becoming the fifth pitcher in program history to reach 200 career punchouts. The left-hander ranks fifth in the Big Ten with 44.1 innings pitched in 2021. Ben Wereski holds the top spot on the conference leaderboard for WHIP (0.91) and walks allowed per nine innings (0.89) after working a seven-inning complete game last time out. In the third spot of the rotation, Brent Teller returned to the rotation versus Iowa with no earned runs permitted over six innings. The right-hander ranks 40^th among active Division I pitchers with 204 career strikeouts, 20^st with 250.2 inning pitched and 22^nd with 41 games started.
 
The bullpen has five different pitchers with saves, including two from Brian Fitzpatrick and Kyle Muller. Muller leads the staff with 11 appearances, while Nate McLain has surrendered just two earned runs in his last five outings (10.1 innings).
 
Overall, the pitching staff ranks first in the league and 15^th nationally with only 3.05 walks allowed per nine innings, while sitting second in the Big Ten with a 2.72 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
 

SERIES HISTORY

Michigan swept the last meetings played in Ann Arbor in 2019, including a 10-inning victory in the series finale, to take a 10-5 series lead since 2011. Rutgers' last win over the Wolverines, ranked 13^th the time, was a 15-9 victory at Bainton Field on May 4, 2018.
 

UP NEXT

The Scarlet Knights next travel to Nebraska to begin a three-game series on April 30.
 
Follow Rutgers Athletics on Facebook and Twitter (@RUAthletics) for all of the latest news and updates. For specific updates regarding baseball, follow the program on Twitter (@RutgersBaseball), Instagram (@rutgersbaseball) and Facebook (/BaseballRU). For additional updates, please download the Scarlet Knights App via the app store or play store.