Rutgers baseball looks to fly high in road series against Iowa
The Rutgers baseball team will head out to Iowa City, Iowa, this weekend, to take on Iowa in a three-game series. The Scarlet Knights (23-13, 3-6) are coming off a 2-1 series win against Nebraska and a dominant 19-4 win over Monmouth.
The Hawkeyes (18-5, 6-6) will welcome Rutgers following a 2-1 series loss to Ohio State last weekend, highlighted by an 11-1 loss where Iowa waved the white flag in the eighth. Below are a few storylines that will decide if the Knights will take the series out in the Midwest this weekend.
Rutgers' offense needs to take advantage of Iowa's pitching
The largest factor in Rutgers' success this season has been its offense. The Knights are currently at the top of the Big Ten with a batting average of .327 and lead the conference with 428 hits. The Hawkeyes are the next closest team with an average of .312 and 365 hits, as of April 16.
Junior infielder Josh Kuroda-Grauer leads the charge on both the Rutgers team and the entire Big Ten, posting a conference-best .455 batting average. Kuroda-Grauer has the third-best average in the nation but leads all of college ball in hits with 71.
Aside from Kuroda-Grauer, the Knights have five other players in the Big Ten's top 25 for batting average with sophomore outfielder Trevor Cohen coming in second on the team with a .359 batting average.
This group of batsmen will have to keep the momentum from Tuesday's 15-run victory going. Something else to look out for is Kuroda-Grauer's five-game streak of at least three base knocks.
The Rutgers offense will face a slate of pitchers that aren't as difficult as the weeks preceding. Iowa, as of April 16, posts the fourth-worst earned runs average (ERA) in the Big Ten at 6.33. In the past two weeks, the Knights have faced the Cornhuskers and Purdue, who are number one and two in the Big Ten with team ERAs of 4.26 and 4.53, respectively.
The Hawkeyes' best pitcher has been Cade Obermueller, who has been Iowa's most consistent starter and currently sits at the 10th spot of the Big Ten in ERA. In his most recent outing, though, he suffered a loss to the Buckeyes (18-15, 5-4), where he gave up 6 runs and six hits in four innings.
The day-two starter for the Hawkeyes against Rutgers will most likely be Marcus Morgan. Morgan has a 7.23 ERA, which is something that the Knights will look to take advantage of this weekend in the game against Iowa.
Rutgers' pitching needs to step up vs. Iowa's bats
The offense for the Hawkeyes has been the strongest part of their game.
As of April 16, Iowa's best hitter is Andy Nelson with a batting average of .378. Nelson has 31 hits on 82 at-bats and is usually the lead-off batter for the Hawkeyes. Next on the list is Raider Tello with an average of .367.
To combat this high-powered offense, Rutgers will need to have one of its better weekends on the bump.
The most consistent Knight has been senior left-handed pitcher Justin Sinibaldi. Sinibaldi boasts a 2.67 ERA, which puts him at third in the Big Ten.
Aside from Sinibaldi, Rutgers is still looking for more consistency out of the starting pitchers and the bullpen. With freshman right-handed pitcher and infielder Zack Konstantinovsky’s status still up in the air, it will most likely be graduate student right-handed pitcher Jake Marshall and sophomore right-handed pitcher Christian Coppola getting the nod to start games two and three.
Marshall has a 5.63 ERA as well as a 1-2 record and will look to bounce back after allowing 5 runs (4 earned) in three innings against Nebraska. In his Sunday start against the Cornhuskers, Coppola pitched three innings and let up 3 runs on six hits. He currently has a 6.58 ERA and a 4-3 personal record. This weekend, Coppola will need to take another step toward returning to his late 2023 form.
Game one between the Knights and Iowa will start at 7 p.m. on Friday. Game two will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday, with the series finale teeing off at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
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