Rutgers Baseball was on the road again this past weekend participating in the Carolinas Coastline Classic. The Scarlet Knights had another good weekend as they won two out of three games, dropping the first game in a slugfest versus Coastal Carolina before sweeping the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks in a Saturday doubleheader.
The Rutgers offense is off to a tremendous start so far this year as they currently lead the Big Ten in batting average and also have three of the five top hitters in the conference.
With that being said, here are three takeaways from the Rutgers weekend at the Carolinas Coastline Classic.
OFFENSE LEADING THE WAY.....
For the first two weeks of the season, the Rutgers offense has been tearing the cover off the ball as they currently have the top ranked offense in the Big Ten with a .348 team-batting average.
The RU offense is also ranked tied for 14th in the country with Notre Dame. The Scarlet Knights have a veteran led offense with most of their starts returning from last season. The only two starts on Rutgers offense that weren’t starting at RU last season were transfers and are having excellent start to their seasons at the plate.
Junior outfielder Richie Schiekofer is leading the way for the Rutgers offense as he’s slashing .520/.563/.600 with 13 hits, two doubles, eight RBIs and five walks. Designated hitter Evan Sleight is also off to a nice start this season as he’s batting .450 with nine hits, one double and four RBIs.
RHP FLORENCE DOMINATES UNC-WILMINGTON
Hartford graduate transfer and right-handed pitcher Nathan Florence is Rutgers Sunday starter but is having tons of success early on as a Scarlet Knight. Florence especially had a great outing this past Saturday versus the Seahawks.
The 6’3” 210 right-hander out of Massachusetts pitched five innings allowing two hits, no runs, three walks and struck out nine. On the season, Florence has a 1-0 record with a 1.13 ERA, 1.25 WHIP and 14.6 K/9.
The Scarlet Knights weekend rotation had some question marks heading into the season as they had lost all three of their starters from last season but Florence has definitely been a big contributor in a short time at RU.
TWO TRANSFERS LEADING OFFENSE.....
The Rutgers Scarlet Knights returned seven of their nine starters from last season. The two starters that they replaced came to Rutgers via the Transfer Portal. Manhattan transfer Nick Cimillo made the everyday catcher and Tony Santa Maria has started in the infield in every game.
Nick Cimillo came to Rutgers after spending the past three seasons at Manhattan before putting his name in the portal. During his time at RU, Cimillo has played in all six games putting up big time numbers. Cimillo is slashing .500/.654/.883 with nine hits, three doubles, one home run and is leading the Big Ten in OPS with a 1.487.
As for Tony Santa Maria, he came to Rutgers after just one season at Iona College. As a Scarlet Knight, Santa Mari is off to a strong start in which he’s slashing .417/.500/.750 with ten hits, five doubles, one home run, eleven RBIs and a 1.250 OPS.
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