Rutgers baseball welcomes Iowa to Bainton Field this weekend
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are back home after a nice series win over the Northwestern Wildcats last weekend. Rutgers took two out of three on the road including an extra innings win the series finale last Sunday.
The Scarlet Knights will now host the Iowa Hawkeyes this weekend in a four-game weekend series. Iowa comes into town with a 12-9 record and are riding a four-game winning streak. During their winning streak, the Hawkeyes have a win against Purdue and swept Minnesota in three games.
This will be another tough test for the Scarlet Knights as Iowa is one of the top teams in the Big Ten Conference. Rutgers has played well this season but will need to continue their success against the Iowa Hawkeyes.
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Iowa Hawkeyes
The Iowa Hawkeyes will look to continue their winning streak as they’ll travel to Piscataway, New Jersey to take on Rutgers. Iowa will be led by their head coach, Rick Heller, who’s in his eight season with the Hawkeyes
The pitching staff is one of the best in the conference and is led by their ace left-handed pitcher Trenton Wallace. The fourth-year junior is in the middle of a huge season as he has a 3-1 record in six starts. He also has a 1.87 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 12.6 K/9 and .193 opponent batting average.
Right-handed pitcher Cam Baumann is the projected to pitch in the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday. Redshirt-sophomore Drew Irvine is also projected to pitch in the second game of the doubleheader. In the series finale, Right-handed pitcher Duncan Davitt is expected to be on the mound for the Hawkeyes.
While Iowa’s pitching staff has been great, their offense hasn’t been success during the 2021 season. Iowa’s offense ranks tenth in batting average but does rank seventh in the conference in home runs and runs batted in.
The Iowa offense is led by fifth-year senior Ben Norman. Iowa’s centerfielder leads the Hawkeyes in hitting with a .303 batting average. Norman also leads the Hawkeyes in hits with 23, home runs with seven, RBIs with 22 and OPS with a 1.083.
Another outfielder that’s been hitting well for the Hawkeyes is redshirt-senior Zeb Adreon. The former JUCO transfer is batting .286 with 20 hits, two triples, three home runs, five stolen bases and a perfect fielding percentage. Two other Iowa players to watch in this series are shortstop Dylan Nedved and first baseman Peyton Williams.
Iowa Hawkeyes Projected Starting Lineup
C- Brett McCleary
1B- Peyton Williams
2B- Izaya Fullard
3B- Matthew Sosa
SS- Dylan Nedved
LF- Brayden Frazier
CF- Ben Norman
RF- Zeb Adreon
DH- Tyler Snep
Rutgers Scarlet Knights
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are back in familiar territory after a strong weekend against the Northwestern Wildcats. While it was a good series for Rutgers, they’ll need to turn the page and focus on the task at hand which is the Iowa Hawkeyes.
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights will feature the same weekend rotation for the most part but add another arm due to the series being four games. Fourth year left-handed pitcher Harry Rutkowski will be on the mound on Friday. Rutkowski is in the middle of a strong season with a 2-2 record in six starts. He also has a 2.90 ERA, 1.04 WHIP and a .193 opponent batting average.
In the Saturday doubleheader, left-handed pitcher Ben Wereski should get the start for Rutgers in the first game. Right-handed pitcher Brent Teller could get the start for the second game of the doubleheader.
If Rutgers decided to go with Teller on Saturday, then freshman southpaw Justin Sinibaldi would start in the series finale. The true freshman had a nice first impression during last weekend as he threw five scoreless in his first start of his collegiate career.
The Rutgers offense has been pretty solid this season as they ranked seventh in the Big Ten in batting average. However, Rutgers is one of the best power hitting teams in the country. Rutgers is third in the conference in home runs and slugging percentage.
Infielder Mike Nyisztor is the Rutgers leading hitter with a .370 batting average which is tied for fourth in the Big Ten. Nyisztor also has 17 hits, three doubles and a .935 OPS. Another Rutgers infielder is also having a great season is Chris Brio.
Brito is coming off a bad weekend series against Northwestern but is still having a very nice season. Brito is batting .300 batting average with 24 hits, five doubles, nine home runs, 27 RBIs and team-high 1.104 OPS. Two other Rutgers hitters to watch are first baseman Jordan Sweeney and outfielder Ryan Lasko.
Rutgers still has one injury heading into this weekend with shortstop Danny DiGeorgio. He has a lower body half injury and is listed day-to-day. There’s a chance he plays this weekend but the coaching staff won’t push him.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights Projected Starting Lineup
C- Peter Serruto
1B- Jordan Sweeney
2B- Grant Shulman
3B- Chris Brito
SS- Cameron Love
LF- Ryan Lasko
CF- Richie Schiekofer
RF- Evan Sleight
DH- Mike Nyisztor
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