Rutgers Baseball has a shot at Big Ten Conference championship this weekend
Both the Rutgers and Maryland baseball teams are playing for their first Big Ten Conference regular season title this weekend.
Rutgers (40-12) and Maryland (40-10) each have 16-5 marks within the conference and are tied for first place. The Terrapins own the tiebreaker by winning the weekend series with the Scarlet Knights earlier this month, 2-1.
If you’re a Rutgers fan, you’re of course rooting for Rutgers in the final series of the season. You’re also rooting for Purdue.
The Scarlet Knights will have eyes on them this weekend as all three games on the road at Michigan starting Thursday, tonight will be shown on the Big Ten Network. Rutgers faces the Wolverines at 8:00 p.m. tonight, 8:00 p.m. on Friday, and 5:00 p.m. on Saturday.
Michigan (26-24, 10-11) is 11-7 against Rutgers all-time and 11-4 in Big Ten play, but the Scarlet Knights won the series last season, 2-1.
However, if Rutgers wants to win the conference title outright or at least tie for first, it’ll likely have to sweep the Wolverines. No men’s team at Rutgers has ever won a Big Ten championship either in the regular season or in the league tournament.
Maryland is 10-4 all-time against Purdue including a sweep a year ago of the Boilermakers. This time, the three-game series is in West Lafayette.
Rutgers currently ranks first among Big Ten teams in batting average (.321), doubles (130), doubles per game (2.50), fielding percentage (.980), hits (623), runs (501), runs per game (9.2) and shutouts (four). Rutgers marks of batting average (2nd), doubles (2nd), doubles/game (5th), hits (2nd), hits allowed per nine innings (7.56, 9th), runs (2nd), runs/game (2nd), slugging percentage (.541, 9th) and W/L percentage (.769, 8th) are all top 10 in the country.
This past weekend, the Scarlet Knights swept Bowling Green in a rain-shortened two-games series, and then defeated St. Joseph’s on Tuesday, 14-2.
Rutgers has reached 40 wins in the regular season for only the second time in program history.
Maryland has won five-straight. Michigan was just swept last weekend by the Terps, but it did bounce back by topping Michigan State on Tuesday. Purdue, which is 29-17 overall and 9-10 in the conference, is coming off of a series win versus Northwestern on the road.
Projected Rutgers starting pitchers
Thursday - RHP Jared Kollar (8-2, 3.65 ERA)
Friday - RHP Nathan Florence (6-2, 3.23 ERA)
Saturday - TBD
Projected Michigan starting pitchers
Thursday - LHP Connor O’Halloran (4-4, 4.83 ERA)
Friday - RHP Cameron Weston (4-3, 5.23 ERA)
Saturday - TBD
Rutgers schedule
Thursday - 8:00 p.m. -- BTN
Friday - 8:00 p.m. -- BTN
Saturday - 5:00 p.m. -- BTN
Maryland schedule
Thursday - 6:00 p.m. -- BTN+
Friday - 5:00 p.m. -- BTN+
Saturday - 1:00 p.m. -- BTN+
Follow Chris Nalwasky on Twitter @ChrisNalwasky.
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