PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers baseball returns home this week to face Princeton for an in-state showdown at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Bainton Field. 

Zach Gleason will make his first start of the season for the Scarlet Knights (10-14), who kick off a five game homestand. 

The Tigers (6-14) will counter with Nick Shenefelt, a two-way player who has four appearances on the mound and one start. 

RU is back home after a four-game road trip to the west coast that saw the Scarlet Knights play four games at top-10 competition. The Scarlet Knights dropped a midweek game at No. 8 Oregon State by a score of 7-3 and dropped two-of-three at No. 9 Oregon in Big Ten action. 

Landon Mack was named Big Ten Pitcher and Freshman of the Week after seven shutout innings against the Ducks. 

As a team, Rutgers leads the Big Ten and is sixth nationally with a .984 fielding percentage, with the team owning a streak of 12 straight games without an error. 

Trevor Cohen leads the team with a .340 average and leads the Big Ten with 11 doubles, which also rank fifteenth in the country. He is the toughest batter in the conference to strikeout, with just one strikeout every 16.2 at-bats. 

On the mound, Rutgers has found success with a multitude of young arms. 53.1% of the team's innings have come from freshmen, including the team's top two arms in innings: Landon Mack (28.1) and Justin Shadek (23.2). Last weekend at Oregon, the Scarlet Knights started three freshmen in Shadek, Mack and Jack Kirchner. True freshman Luke Fithian closed out Saturday's win with 1.2 scoreless innings, while true freshman Matthew Cruz contributed 3.1 scoreless innings across two games on the road trip. 

Following Wednesday's contest, Rutgers will welcome Washington to Bainton Field for a three-game series in Big Ten action, the first all-time meeting between the programs. 

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