Rutgers baseball team looks for 4th straight series win on road against High Point
The Rutgers baseball team will travel down to Greensboro, North Carolina, this weekend to face off against High Point at First Bank National Field. The Scarlet Knights (9-2, 0-0) are coming off a 7-2 win at home against Wagner, where they put up 10 hits in the rainy contest.
The Seahawks (0-11, 0-0) started hot, reaching home on an unearned run. But aside from one more run in the eighth inning, Wagner sat back and watched as Rutgers put up seven runs, highlighted by a three-hit day from graduate student outfielder Pete Durocher.
Junior right-handed pitcher Jordan Falco started the game on the mound for the Knights, his first of the season. Falco allowed one run on one hit and finished with five strikeouts and three walks through four innings.
Now, Rutgers will take on the Panthers (3-10, 0-0), looking for its fourth consecutive series win.
High Point is currently on a three-game skid. It lost a series to Dayton 2-1 and then fell to UNC Greensboro on Tuesday by a score of 13-7.
Despite the recent losses, the team is home to a few players with hot bats. Konni Durschlag leads the team with a .353 batting average and 18 hits on the season. Brayden Simpson has been the recent hero for the Panthers, recording five hits and five runs batted in (RBI) over the last four games. Simpson is tied for the team lead with 11 RBI.
Brett Wozniak is High Point's ace. He won his most recent affair in game one of the series against the Flyers (6-5, 0-0). Wozniak has the lowest earned run average (ERA) on the team among qualified pitchers at 6.32 and has recorded nine strikeouts on the year.
For the Knights, the pitching rotation has been solid all season. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Christian Coppola projects to once again start the first game of the series, boasting a 2-0 record and a team-high 19 strikeouts.
Senior left-handed pitcher Justin Sinibaldi projects to be the go-to arm for day two. He is coming off an 11-strikeout, zero-walk performance this past weekend against Charleston Southern.
Freshman right-handed pitcher and infielder Zack Konstantinovsky got the nod on day three in Rutgers' last series but operated in a pitching committee of graduate student right-handed pitcher Sonny Fauci, redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Sam Portnoy and junior left-handed pitcher Joe Mazza.
Graduate student left-handed pitcher Joey DeChiaro has been stellar in relief for the Knights and is the team's main closer. DeChiaro transferred from Old Dominion and has been clutch in the late innings. DeChiaro struck out all six batters he faced in his most recent showing to slam the door shut and close out the series finale against the Buccaneers (6-7, 0-0).
On offense, Rutgers has been dominant. The Knights have already totaled 128 hits through 11 games and have seven players with double-digit hits. Junior infielder Josh Kuroda-Grauer and sophomore outfielder Trevor Cohen each have 20 hits. Kuroda-Grauer leads the team with 15 RBI on 47 at-bats.
Speaking of runs, what about home runs? Redshirt sophomore infielder Tony Santa Maria has hit a whopping five home runs this season and has a .750 slugging percentage. Both stats lead the team.
Rutgers' timely hot bats have been the leading factor in its early season success and will need to stay relevant this weekend against the Panthers.
High Point will look to snap its three-game losing streak and pick up its first series win of the season, while the Knights will try to maintain their three-game winning streak.
Game one between Rutgers and the Panthers will take place on Friday at 2 p.m., with game two starting 45 minutes after the conclusion of game one. The series finale will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
For more updates on the Rutgers baseball team, follow @TargumSports on X.
To view more of Philip Jaccoma's work, follow @PJaccoma on X.
