Rutgers Baseball & Softball have good weekend series

Softball 19-9, 7-2 B1G

Jay Nelson's squad has now won three straight conference series, including a just concluded sweep of Michigan State.  And while the teams they've beaten aren't among the conference's elite - Indiana (12^th place), Purdue (8^th), MSU (14^th) - it is still surprising to those in the B1G.  The announcers on the Michigan-Minnesota softball telecast on BTN commented that the Knights were not necessarily counted on to be in the position they are now.  And, yes, I was watching Big Ten softball on TV on Sunday.

In its first home series, RU swept the Spartans in some dramatic fashion.  After the first game was called because of darkness on Friday (did anyone say we need lights?), the team came back to finish the game on Saturday, winning 6-5 in a walk off 11-inning contest. In the top of the eleventh inning, MSU plated a run via back-to-back hits to move in front, 5-4.  Rutgers quickly put runners on in the bottom half of the inning and sophomore Bridget Carr gave the Scarlet Knights just what they were looking for, registering a two-run single to give RU a 6-5 walk-off victory  Alyssa Landrith earned the win to improve her overall record to 9-5 on the season.

The regularly scheduled game on Saturday was a bizarre contest.  After taking an early lead, Rutgers gave up a 16-run fourth inning.  You read that correctly: 16 runs.  One-six.  I gave them up for dead as I followed it on Gametracker.  But the Knights came back with five runs in the bottom of the inning and then eight more in the fifth inning to win a 22-17 game.  The Knights wrapped up the sweep with a 5-2 win on Sunday.

Big Ten Scheduling

An interesting point raised by the BTN broadcasters was that the conference has a de facto divisional scheduling pattern in place for softball.  With RU and Maryland coming into the conference, teams will not play all 13 other squads.  As a result, Rutgers' only series with one of the top B1G softball teams is this weekend at home versus Michigan (33-6).

Shortage of games?

I've been thinking about this for a while.  Rutgers has played fewer games than any Big Ten squad except Michigan State.  RU's 28 games pales compared to Michigan's 39, Purdue and PSU's 38, or Nebraska's and Minnesota's 37.  RU did well in its early-season western tournaments; would it be better prepared for conference play if it had more games under its belt?

Big Ten Standings

		Overall		Conference
		W-L	%	W-L	%
1.	Northwestern	20-11	.645	8-0	1.000
2.	Michigan	33-6	.846	7-2	.778
	Rutgers	19-9	.679	7-2	.778
4.	Nebraska	20-17	.541	8-3	.727
5.	Minnesota	30-7	.811	6-3	.667
6.	Maryland	23-16	.590	5-4	.556
	Illinois	14-21	.400	5-4	.556
8.	Purdue	24-14	.632	4-5	.444
	Penn State	21-17	.553	4-5	.444
10.	Ohio State	19-16	.543	3-6	.333
11.	Iowa	12-30	.286	3-8	.273
12.	Indiana	11-28	.282	2-7	.222
13.	Wisconsin	14-20	.412	1-7	.125
14.	Michigan State	16-20	.444	1-8	.111

Updated through all games of April 5.

Results and Upcoming Schedule

4/03/15	vs. Michigan State *	RU Softball Complex	W, 6-5 (11)
4/04/15	vs. Michigan State *	RU Softball Complex	W, 22-17
4/05/15	vs. Michigan State *	RU Softball Complex	W, 5-2
4/07/15	at St. John's	Jamaica, N.Y.	4:00 p.m. ET
4/08/15	vs. Princeton	RU Softball Complex	4:00 p.m. ET
4/10/15	vs. Michigan *	RU Softball Complex	3:00 p.m. ET
4/11/15	vs. Michigan *	RU Softball Complex	1:00 p.m. ET
4/12/15	vs. Michigan *	RU Softball Complex	12:00 p.m. ET

Baseball  10-19, 5-4 B1G

They were 3-13 before conference play began.  Yes, they played some better competition down south, but the record had me wondering how Rutgers would do against improving Big Ten baseball.  I'm feeling better now, although the two midweek losses to New Jersey opponents did not make me feel good.

The Knights wrapped up their second series win, taking down Minnesota, 6-5, on Sunday to win the rubber game. The win was secured by a go-ahead double by sophomore Christian Campbell in the eighth inning.  On the mound, sophomore Max Herrmann (2-2) allowed RU to make its comeback with three scoreless frames out of the bullpen. The left-hander permitted one hit and two walks in earning his fifth career win. Following up, senior Jon Young surrendered a single and hit a batter, but collected a pair of fly outs to go with a strikeout to earn his first save of the season.  Rutgers split a weather-caused doubleheader on Saturday, winning the first game, 13-6, before dropping the nightcap, 11-9.

In conference play, Rutgers has taken series against two of the bottom teams in the conference.  And it went to a 1-0 loss in the rubber game versus fourth place OSU.  It has been a pretty good start.

Hoosier-ball

Rutgers, though, has a very big series coming up against Indiana, which won both B1G regular season and tournament titles in 2013 and 2014.  Last year, the Hoosiers went 44-15 and hosted an NCAA Regional, going 2-2 and being eliminated by Stanford.

Indiana's Bart Kaufman Field - iuhoosiers.com

Indiana had four All Americans on its squad last year, two first team, two second.  And five Hoosiers were drafted in 2014, the most from IU in the same draft since 2009. Kyle Schwarber (fourth overall, Cubs), Sam Travis (67th, Red Sox), Dustin DeMuth (146th, Brewers), Joey DeNato (562nd, Phillies) and Jake Kelzer (662nd, Yankees) all had their names called.

Not quite Big Ten-ready? - rvc73

Big Ten Standings

		Overall		Conference
		W-L-T	%	W-L	%
1.	Iowa	21-7-0	.750	6-0	1.000
2.	Illinois	24-6-1	.790	5-1	.833
3.	Maryland	22-7-0	.759	7-2	.778
4.	Ohio State	21-7-0	.750	6-2	.750
5.	Rutgers	10-19-0	.345	5-4	.556
6.	Nebraska	23-10-0	.697	3-3	.500
7.	Michigan	18-13-0	.581	4-5	.444
8.	Michigan State	15-14-0	.517	2-4	.333
	Northwestern	8-22-0	.267	2-4	.333
10.	Indiana	18-10-0	.643	2-6	.250
	Penn State	8-17-0	.320	1-3	.250
12.	Minnesota	10-17-0	.370	2-7	.222
13.	Purdue	10-21-0	.323	1-5	.167

Updated through April 5, 2015

Results and Upcoming Schedule

3/31/15	vs. Manhattan	Bainton Field	L, 2-0
4/01/15	vs. Monmouth N.J.	Bainton Field	L, 6-4
4/04/15	vs. Minnesota *	Bainton Field	W, 13-6
	vs. Minnesota *	Bainton Field	L, 11-9
4/05/15	vs. Minnesota *	Bainton Field	W, 6-5
4/08/15	at Fordham	Bronx, N.Y.	6:00 p.m. ET
4/10/15	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	6:00 p.m. ET
4/11/15	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	2:00 p.m. ET
4/12/15	at Indiana *	Bloomington, Ind.	1:00 p.m. ET