Rutgers Closes Baseball Season With Georgetown At Bainton Field
May 13 | Baseball
PISCATAWAY, N.J. – The Rutgers baseball team will close its season with a three-game series against Georgetown Thursday through Saturday at Bainton Field in Piscataway. The Scarlet Knights and Hoyas will open the three-game set with 3:00 p.m. games Thursday and Friday and conclude with a 1:00 p.m. contest Saturday.
Rutgers enters the weekend on a 10-game winning streak against Georgetown, dating back to the 2005 season. RU is 36-6 all-time against GU, including a near-perfect 34-3 mark under head coach Fred Hill. Rutgers owns an unblemished home record against Georgetown under the veteran Scarlet Knight mentor. No current member of the Scarlet Knights has lost to the Hoyas.
Rutgers heads into the series 20-30 overall and 6-18 in the BIG EAST. The Scarlet Knights are mathematically eliminated from the conference tournament. Saturday’s season finale will be Senior Day at Bainton Field, where the baseball program’s six-member senior class –Ryan Beard (Point Pleasant, N.J.), Jason Downey (Ballston Lake, N.Y.), Luis Feliz (New Brunswick, N.J.), Jon McCue (Hillside, N.J.), Tim Reilly (Egg Harbor City, N.J.) and Tony Wargo (New Providence, N.J.) – will each be honored in a ceremony prior to the game.
Sophomore Pat Biserta (Point Pleasant, N.J.) is coming off a four-game stretch last week where the designated hitter batted .563 with four doubles and a home run. He leads the team with a .340 batting average, just behind fellow sophomore Michael Lang (Dumont, N.J.) with a .340 clip. Another fellow sophomore, Jaren Matthews (Teaneck, N.J.) is hitting .462 with four home runs and three doubles in his last 14 games. The first baseman has at least one hit in 12 of the 14 games with multiple hits in eight contests during the stretch.
Redshirt freshman righty Willie Beard (Spotswood, N.J.), who earned a spot on the BIG EAST honor roll after a stellar 7.1 innings of one-run ball in his last appearance last Saturday against Seton Hall, will get the ball in Thursday’s series opener. Junior righty Casey Gaynor (Toms River, N.J.) will toe the rubber in Friday’s contest. He worked 7.2 innings, yielding just two earned runs and striking out three in his last start last Saturday against the Pirates.
Senior closer Ryan Beard (Point Pleasant, N.J.) enters the series in sixth place on the Rutgers single-season saves list with seven this year and in a tie for sixth place on the school’s career saves list with 10 – all recorded in the last two years after the righty transferred in from Brookdale College.
Georgetown enters the series 16-32 overall and 7-16 in the league. Sophomore designated hitter Erick Fernandez leads the Hoyas offensively with a .361 batting average that includes 57 hits, 16 doubles, one triple and five home runs. Sophomore third baseman Sean Lamont is the Hoyas’ top slugger with 14 home runs on the season, while senior center fielder Tommy Lee is a threat on the base paths with 20 steals on the year.
Georgetown is expected to go with senior righty Jimmy Saris (3-6, 7.30 ERA) on the mound in Thursday’s series opener, junior righty Tim Aldeman (3-8, 6.09 ERA) in Friday’s contest and freshman righty Will Harris (3-8, 6.00 ERA) in Saturday’s series finale.
