PHOENIX – Rutgers baseball continues its road swing to start the 2025 season, heading out to Arizona for a four-game set against Grand Canyon. The teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday, with game one set for seven innings and game two scheduled for nine.

Rutgers is coming off a season-opening series win at Kennesaw State, taking two-of-three from the Owls in Georgia. This marks the second of three straight road trips to start the season for RU, with the Scarlet Knights traveling to Coastal Carolina next weekend before opening Big Ten play at home against Iowa. 

Grand Canyon is 2-2, playing each of its first four games against different programs. The Lopes dropped games to No. 16 Vanderbilt and Austin Peay, while picking up wins against San Diego State and No. 23 Nebraska. GCU was picked as the preseason favorite in the WAC.

All four games will be streamed on ESPN+. Fans can also follow along on X (@RutgersBaseball) for live updates. Live stats will be available here.

Series History
This weekend will mark the first all-time meeting between Rutgers and Grand Canyon.

The 2025 Scarlet Knights  

• The 2025 roster features a total of 38 players, with 11 returners and 27 newcomers.
• Of the 27 newcomers, 13 are true freshmen, 12 are four-year transfers and 2 are junior college transfers.
• Head Coach Steve Owens enters his sixth season at the helm of the program and has accumulated three consecutive winnings season with RU. 
• Mike McRae joins the program as pitching coach after three years as the head coach at William & Mary, where he posted three straight winning seasons and three straight CAA Tournament berths.

• The RU starting pitchers (Justin Shadek, Landon Mack, Preston Prince) combined for 11 scoreless innings at Kennesaw State, yielding just seven hits and striking out 12. All three made their Rutgers debuts, with Shadek and Mack making their college debuts.
• Quinn Berglin, Mike Timberlake, Dillon Ryan and Jordan Falco all recorded scoreless outings of multiple innings in relief. In total, 23 of the 26 innings pitched by the Scarlet Knights were scoreless.
• Berglin pitched three scoreless innings of relief in Saturday's win, earning his first victory in his first action for Rutgers. 
• Timberlake finished off the game two win on Friday night, earning the victory after a ninth-inning rally.

• Outfielders Trevor Cohen (.462), RJ Johnson Jr. (.429) and Peyton Bonds (.417) combined to hit .438 against Kennesaw State to pace the offense. 
• Cohen went 5-for-5 in the Friday's season opener to set a career high in hits and picked up his third double of the weekend on Saturday, scoring from second on a sac fly soon after. 
• Brennan Hyde started all three games – two at DH and one in left field – going 4-for-12 with a home run. 

• After losing three of their four starting infielders to the MLB Draft/graduation, the Scarlet Knights rolled out a new look infield against Kennesaw State.
• JT Thompson started all three games at second base after joining the team from the JUCO ranks, going 4-for-11 (.364) with an RBI, a double and a run scored.
• Pablo Santos started all three games at third base, ripping an RBI double for an insurance run in Friday night's game.
• Yomar Carreras started all three games at shortstop, with the true freshman picking up three hits – including a double and an RBI single – while converting all 14 of his chances in the field without an error.  
• INF Nick Tomasetto started game two at DH and went 1-for-3 with his first career hit.

• Matt Chatelle and JD Jones split time at catcher in week one, with Chatelle starting games one and three and JD Jones starting game two and coming in as a defensive replacement in game three. 
• Chatelle drove in a run with a sac fly on Saturday and threw out a runner stealing in game one Friday.
• Jones threw out a runner on Friday night and scored a run Saturday after drawing a walk.  

• In total, 14 players made their Rutgers debuts against Kennesaw State
  • RHP Quinn Berglin, OF Peyton Bonds, INF Yomar Carreras, C Matt Chatelle, RHP Zach Gleason, OF Brennan Hyde, LHP Cameron Johnson, RHP Landon Mack, LHP Preston Prince, RHP Dillon Ryan, RHP Justin Shadek, INF JT Thompson, RHP Mike Timberlake and INF Nick Tomasetto
• Additionally, five freshmen made their collegiate debuts last weekend 
  • INF Yomar Carreras, LHP Cameron Johnson, RHP Landon Mack, RHP Justin Shadek and INF Nick Tomasetto