The 2018 Rutgers Scarlet Knights baseball team ended last season on an unusual note as they were forced to cancel their last game of the season against Minnesota. This year the roster has been revamped and now coach Joe Litterio and crew are ready for a new season.
Despite losing three guys to Major League Baseball clubs and adding 16 new faces to the roster this offseason, the Scarlet Knights still have their goal set on making the Big Ten baseball tournament in Omaha, Nebraska later this spring.
PITCHING
Even though the Scarlet Knights lost starters John O’Reilly (Signed with Pittsburgh Pirates), Eric Heatter (Transfer to Brookdale CC), and Karl Blum to graduation, Rutgers does return one of their top starters from last season in Harry Rutkowski. Last year Rutkowski went 4-6 with an ERA of 5.34. After basically being the teams number two starter last season, look for Rutkowski to earn the role of the teams ace for the season.
After that Rutgers plans on moving senior pitcher Serafino Brito from closer to starter, a role he originally was in for his first two seasons as a Scarlet Knights. Last season in the closer role Brito made 26 appearances finishing with an ERA of 3.57 and a win/loss record of 1-2.
Capping off the rotation is junior Tevin Murray, another former relief pitcher who is being converted into a staring pitcher. Despite not starting any games last season, Murray appeared in 18 different games last season in a relief role, and was able to hold his opponents to .206 batting average. He was extremely impressive last year when it came to conference play, where in just nine Big Ten games he held his opponents to just a .135 batting average.
In the bullpen, the biggest name on paper is redshirt junior Tommy Genuario. The junior pitcher has moved around quite a bit over his first couple of seasons, as he played outfield his freshman year and then moved to the bullpen last season. As a relief pitcher, Genuario pitched in 22 games and finished with the second lowest ERA on the team with a 3.20.
Behind Genuario, the Scarlet Knights bullpen is made up of two other juniors in Eric Reardon and Kyle Gerace and the rest are underclassmen. Unlike the starting rotation, the bullpen will work itself out throughout the season.
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“We are going to find out who are top three guys are, replacing John O’Reilly who was our mainstay on Friday night and our workhorse is going to be a big kid to replace,” said Littero. “We are hoping Serafino Brito can go back into a starting role, we are going to try that early on and see how he does. We also have Harry (Rutkowski) back for another year with a lot more experience. Finally, we will have Tevin Murray and see if he can be a guy for us on a Sunday. Those are the top three for us right now.”
HITTING & FIELDING
The Scarlet Knights had a tough offseason as they lost center fielder Jawuan Harris and catcher Nick Matera to the MLB Draft. The team also lost All-B1G freshman team and starting shortstop Dan DiGeorgio to injury, but there is a good chance he will be back by April.
One of the guys to keep an eye this season is true freshman Chris Brito. He had quite the list of accomplishments during his high school career, leading the county in hits and average as a freshman. He was also a three time first team all-conference and a three-team all county all-star. Brito has some big shoes to fill, but if he can play like he did in high school it is very possible that coach Joe Litterio and crew might have another All-B1G freshman on his team.
Third basemen Carmen Sclafani is one of four seniors on the team and has taken on a little bit of a leadership role being one of the older guys on the roster. Last year batting in the two hole, Sclafani finished with a batting average of .287 with three home runs and 19 RBIs during his junior year along with a team high slugging percentage of .427.
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“The young guys are going to be playing some key roles for us,” Litterio told TKR. “We have three young guys who have a chance to play right away and contribute for us. Chris Brito is in a big role playing first base and hitting somewhere in the middle of the order. I think he will bring some big hitting to the lineup. We also lost Danny (DiGeorgio) to injury, so we now have freshman Dave Soto replacing him. He’s a very talented kid who has some speed and is very solid defensively with his glove. Then we have catcher Pete Serruto who will be behind (Tyler) McNamara, but when you look at catchers you always need two good ones to split the time behind the plate.”
SEASON OPENING SERIES
The Rutgers baseball team will open the 2019 season in Florida as they will take on the Miami Hurricanes. The Hurricanes won all two out of three games last year versus Rutgers, but the Scarlet Knights were able to steal game three by a score of 7-5.
The 2019 season starts on Friday February 15th against Miami, first pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. EST.
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