Rutgers Baseball just wrapped up their first weekend series of the year versus Campbell this past weekend as the Scarlet Knights went 1-2 on the weekend as they were dominated in the first two games before returning the favor in the series finale.
The Scarlet Knights got off to a slow start, as the pitching and hitting were both lacking especially the pitching as the staff as a whole struggled to throw strikes.
With that being said, here are three takeaways from the weekend series.
RUTGERS SLOW OUT OF THE GATE...
With high expectations of making the NCAA Tournament this season, the Scarlet Knights couldn’t have gotten off to a much slower start, as they were completely dominated by Campbell in the first few games.
The pitching staff had no control on the mound and the offense was doing nothing at the plate. It was a really ugly start to the season especially when one of their top players in Tony Santa Maria went down with a shoulder injury in game two.
Nevertheless, the team did wake up on Sunday, as Rutgers routed Campbell 16-3 behind a much better game from both the pitching staff and the offense.
FRESHMAN TREVOR COHEN LEADS THE WAY....
Freshman outfielder Trevor Cohen earned one of the starting outfield jobs to start the year and looked incredible in his first collegiate games. The left-handed hitting outfielder was Rutgers’ best hitter this weekend by a mile as he went 8-for-11 (.727 batting average) with a double, six RBIs, a stolen base, and a 1.485 OPS. The Campbell pitching staff had no answers for Cohen as he reached base in each of his first five at-bats.
It’s great to see a freshman make an immediate impact on the team, but it would be better if other players has stepped up too. The rest of the Rutgers offense didn’t do anything at the plate, as they are batting below the Mendoza line without Cohen. The offense needs to pick it up and fast, especially with a stronger OOC schedule this year.
PITCHERS STRUGGLING TO THROW STRIKES...
Everyone knew that the biggest question on this roster was the pitching staff because Rutgers is replacing a lot of quality arms from last season and many of the arms they brought are considered unknowns.
In the first weekend series of the season, the pitching staff walked and hit many Campbell batters. The team walked 25 batters in just three games and hit eleven more, that's over ten free passes a game that the Scarlet Knights were giving up.
Now, it was the first series of the season and maybe the pitchers were too amped up and i it caused them to lose control of their stuff. Heck it's very plausible that could be the case, but they need to get that out of their system for this weekend as they are getting ready to participate in the Swig & Swine Classic this upcoming weekend.
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