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Who
No. 25 Indiana Hoosiers (33-19, 14-7 B1G) vs rutger Scarlet Knights (20-28, 9-11 B1G)
Where
Bart Kaufman Field, Bloomington, Indiana
When
Thursday, May 16, 6:05 p.m. — BTN Plus
Friday, May 17, 6:05 p.m. — BTN
Saturday, May 18, 12:05 p.m. — BTN
Probable Starters
RHP Pauly Milto (7-5, 3.24 ERA) vs LHP Harry Rutkwoski (2-5, 3.55 ERA)
RHP Tanner Gordon (5-4, 3.42 ERA) vs LHP Tevin Murray (4-4, 2.31 ERA)
LHP Andrew Saalfrank (7-1, 2.40 ERA) vs RHP Tommy Genuario (3-4, 2.58 ERA)
Watch | Listen | Live Stats | @IndianaBase | @RutgersBaseball
Preview
This weekend the Hoosiers close out the regular season with a three-game series against rutger. Unlike in years past the Scarlet Knights aren’t Big Ten basement dwellers. They’re in the midst of their best season since joining the conference ahead of the 2015 season and could possibly qualify for the Big Ten Tournament for the first time as they sit in eighth place which is the cutoff for the tourney.
There’s a lot on the line for the Hoosiers as well. If they can sweep the Scarlet Knights, who sit at 178 in RPI heading into the weekend—on par with programs like Western Carolina and Canisius—they’ll just need Nebraska to take two of its three games against Michigan to leapfrog the Wolverines and win the Big Ten title for the first time since 2014.
Rutger isn’t a team that’s going to put up a lot of runs. They’ve scored four runs per game this season, hitting just 15 home runs and posting a team batting average of just .238. On the flipside, the Scarlet Knights do have a solid group of starting pitchers in Rutkowski, Murray, and Genuario. As a group the trio has posted a 2.86 earned run average this season with 189 strikeouts.
IU shouldn’t have much of a problem limiting the Scarlet Knight lineup in this series, which means that the Hoosier lineup will be the key. If they can put a bunch of runs on the board the Scarlet Knights shouldn’t be able to keep up.