5/30/2022 baseball Edit

Rutgers Baseball not selected to the NCAA Tournament

Chris Nalwasky • TheKnightReport

Beat Writer

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Big Ten Tournament finalist, Rutgers, wasn't invited to the NCAA Tournament despite recording a school-record 44 wins and making it to the Big Ten Tournament final.

In the preseason, Rutgers was tabbed to finish seventh in the conference, but it earned the No. 2 seed, and nearly won the conference title on the final weekend of the regular season. The previous best finish in the league since joining the Big Ten in 2014-15 was eighth.

Rutgers was looking for its 16th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2007.

Rutgers Baseball 1B Chris Brito (right) (Rutgers Athletics)

The Scarlet Knights went 44-15 overall on the year, breaking the single-season win mark and won their first three games of the Big Ten Tournament before falling in the final round to a hot Michigan club.

Rutgers set new program records during the regular season in wins with 41, runs (532), home runs (94), RBI (488), total bases (1109) and pitching strikeouts (489), and led all Power-5 teams with 22 road wins. The Scarlet Knights lead the entire country scoring 9.7 runs per game and total runs. They lead the Big Ten with a .320 AVG, 139 doubles, 2.53 doubles/game, 656 hits, 532 runs and 9.7 runs/game. It also flashed the best defense in the Big Ten with a .979 fielding percentage and committing just 0.73 errors/game.

Shortstop Danny DiGeorgio, outfielder Ryan Lasko, and relief pitcher Dale Stanavich were each named All-Big Ten First Team, catcher Nick Cimillo and starting pitcher Jared Kollar were both All-Big Ten Second Team members, and first baseman Chris Brito and second baseman Joshua Kuroda-Grauer, who also was picked for the All-Freshman Team, were named Third Team All-Big Ten.

Lasko was named a semifinalist for the prestigious Golden Spikes Award and is the first Rutgers player to earn that distinction since Todd Frazier in 2007.