Rutgers Baseball HC Steve Owens previews series versus No. 3 Miami
This Friday afternoon will mark the start of a new season for Rutgers Baseball as well as the first series for new Scarlet Knights head coach Steve Owens and his staff. Owens comes to New Jersey from Bryant University, where he averaged 36.3 win per year over the past nine seasons as head coach.
On Wednesday afternoon, The Knight Report caught up with the Scarlet Knights new head coach to preview his teams season opening series versus the No. 3 ranked Miami Hurricanes.
ON FACING NO. 3 RANKED MIAMI……..
“The great thing is that we’ve been able to get outside for most of our preseason preparation. We have a big challenge this weekend against an elite program, but we are excited to go down there and see where we are at. It’s really tough, but I’m not really concerned about it. We are going to try and play well regardless of who we are playing. We are going to face elite pitching, good speed, good hitting and all that stuff, but ya know I’ve played a lot of good programs. It just so happens that we are facing one of our toughest opponents on the first weekend, but again I’m confident that we are prepared well and our guys will compete hard.”
ON WHAT STANDS OUT ABOUT MIAMI…..
”I’m more involved with the offense as far as preparation goes, Coach Monagahn does most of the pitching stuff, devising the strategies to get their hitters out and then Kyle, Cogs and I do a lot of the stuff with opposing pitchers to put a plan in place. They have three right handed starters and they are all very, very good. This is a staff that had 600 strikeouts last year, some power arms coming out of the bullpen too and some guys that we don’t even know about. They are very good, it will be very challenging. We have to be prepared to hit on their mistakes and have a good approach in place and stick with it.
PROJECTED STARTERS IN THE FIELD
"I would say that we are starting with Richie (Schiekofer) in right, Victor (Vladerrama) in center and Mike (Nyzistor) in left. Then we have Tim (Dezzi) at third, Danny (DiGeorgio) at short, (Kevin) Welsh at second and (Chris) Brito at first. Pete (Serruto) and Andy (Axelson) will do the catching right now based on where we are with health. Finally Sam (Owens) and Josh (Rodriguez) will be designated hitters.”
| POS. | PLAYERS | LAST SEASON'S STATS |
|---|---|---|
|
RF |
Richie Schiekofer |
Sat out after transferring in from Maryland. 2018: 32 games (12GS) / .326 OBP |
|
CF |
Victor Valderrama |
46 games (42GS) / .228avg / 2 HRs / 12 RBIs / 4 SBs |
|
LF |
Mike Nyisztor |
51GS / .281avg / 1 HR / 10 RBIs / 15 SBs |
|
3B |
Tim Dezzi |
48GS / .275avg / 19 RBIs / 3 SBs |
|
SS |
Dan DiGeorgio |
Missed all last season due to injury 2018: .277avg / 1 HR / 25 RBIs / 17 SBs |
|
2B |
Kevin Welsh |
53GS / .253avg / 3 HRs / 26 RBIs / 7 SBs |
|
1B |
Chris Brito |
43GS / .242avg / 3 HRs / 17 RBIs / 2 SBs |
|
C |
Peter Serruto |
37 games (28GS) / .229avg / 13 RBIs |
|
OR |
|
|
|
C |
Andy Axelson |
9 games (1GS) / .250avg / 1 RBI |
|
DH |
Sam Owens |
2019 (@Bryant): 47GS / .326avg / 6 HRs / 36 RBIs / |
|
OR |
||
|
DH |
Josh Rodriguez |
Freshman from St. Joe's Montvale High School (NJ) |
--------------------------------------------------------------