Big Ten releases Rutgers baseball schedule
The Big Ten released its baseball schedule yesterday for the 2021 spring season. After last year’s season was cut short due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, this year’s schedule will look different. This year, the only games that will be played are in-conference competitions.
The Rutgers baseball team will first face off against Indiana on March 5 inside the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. During that trip, the Scarlet Knights will play a second game against the Hoosiers as well as two games against Minnesota. Within the rest of the season, there will be 13 weekends of conference-only baseball.
Rutgers will have its first home series of the year on the weekend of March 19 against Ohio State. Its other home games will be against other Big Ten opponents such as Penn State, Iowa, Michigan State, Illinois, Indiana and Nebraska.
This will be coach Steve Owens' second year at the helm of the Knights, after a 6-9 overall record last season. What looked like a strong and competitive start for Owens’ first year came to a crash once all sports were canceled due to COVID-19.
Even though the season was cut short, Rutgers had some standouts last year in only 15 games. Juniors outfielder Richie Schiekofer and infielder Tim Dezzi, both of whom batted well above a .300 average, will look to continue their successes into this year.
Junior left-handed pitcher Harry Rutkowski broke out as the ace of the team by having a 2.74 earned run average in the four games he started, keeping teams such as Miami and Old Dominion to less than three runs.
With this trio and all of the other experienced players leading the Knights, the team comes into this season with the hopes of competing with the best in the Big Ten.
For updates on the Rutgers baseball team, follow @TargumSports on Twitter.
