The Rutgers baseball team is in for a packed week of ball games. The Scarlet Knights (10-8, 0-0) will start their week at home before heading to Connecticut for a series against UConn.
After a rocky start to the season, Rutgers has bounced back in recent weeks, winning 7 of their last 8 games.
The Knights have had a great week with wins against Kennesaw State and Mercer. Rutgers blew the Bears (14-7, 0-0) out of the water in the teams’ opener last weekend and rallied 23 runs in nine innings.
The Knights will return to Bainton Field on the Livingston campus for the first time since earlier this month. Today they will welcome rival Rider from New Jersey.
The Broncs (13-6, 0-0) are having a solid season, having lost just one series so far. Rider comes off a winning streak against Villanova where he swept over a double header the Wildcats (2-16, 0-0). The Broncs hit solidly as a team, with a combined hit Average from 0.252.
Rider’s top hitter so far this season has been Brian Skettini, who posted a batting average of .323 along with an .839 on basis plus slugging percentage (OPS). Another Broncs player to watch out for is Jack Winsetthe Rider leads with 17 runs batted (RBI) along with four extra base hits.
Rutgers will welcome another guest tomorrow when they face Lafayette. The Leopards (3-16, 0-0) have had a rather difficult season and have only managed three wins so far. Struggling to accumulate enough runs to keep up with their opponents, they come to Piscataway on an 8-game losing streak.
While Lafayette has disappointed, one of his players has put up impressive numbers. Peter Ciuffreda leads his team with 8 home runs along with 15 RBI and a high 1,002 OPS.
After two home games, the Knights head to Storrs, Connecticut for a weekend series with the Huskies (12-5, 0-0). UConn won two Back-to-back games against San Diego State and meets UMass before hosting Rutgers on Friday.
The Huskies are heavily attacked by several of their players. Since yesterday, Dominik Freeberger leads the team with a .379 batting average, a team high of 25 hits and is first on the team with 18 RBI. UConn has eight players batting for at least a .273 batting average and seven players with double-digit RBIs in the season.
The Knights certainly have a lot to do this week. With such a busy schedule, Rutgers will need to look for consistency and depth this week. Look forward to a week full of exciting matchups for this ball club.
If the Knights are to be more successful, they should channel the exact same energy they had in their series against the Bears last weekend. In that three-game streak, Rutgers scored 35 runs and accumulated 44 hits.
The Knights’ two home games against the Broncs today and tomorrow against Lafayette begin at 3 p.m. and will be broadcast on Big Ten Network+ and 88.7 WRSU-FM. The Rutgers vs. Huskies series is provided with live statistics by StatBroadcast, with the Friday game starting at 3 p.m. and the Saturday and Sunday games at 1 p.m
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