Are the suddenly struggling Knights sinking or a dangerous team backed into a corner?

Series Preview

#23 Nebraska Cornhuskers (22-8) at Rutgers Scarlett Knights (20-12)

Location: Bainton Field, Piscataway, NJ

Dates: April 12-14th

Times (all CDT): Friday @ 5 pm, Saturday @ 2 pm, Sunday @ 11 am

Head Coaches: Will Bolt (5th season, 119-83-1) & Steve Owens (5th season, 124-82)

TV/Stream: B1G+ on Friday and Saturday, BTN on Sunday

Radio: Huskers Radio Network, Huskers.com, Huskers App

Rutgers brought back a lot of big time playmakers from last year’s team that finished 33-23, so they were expected to take a step forward despite losing an all-timer in Ryan Lasko to the MLB draft. Early on the Knights piled up big numbers against some lesser teams from the Northeast, and going into Big Ten play they had an 18-7 record and a respectable RPI that was probably right on the edge of being an NCAA at large team.

Conference play started as expected, with a 4-2 win at Michigan State. However, they lost the next two to the Spartans, then had a mid week game cancelled due to weather, and were swept by a Purdue team that looks to be for real (the Boilermakers trail only Nebraska in ERA in the B1G). Thats 5 straight losses for a team that was picked to do some damage, and boasts the top offense in the league.

So in a way, this is a tough time for Nebraska to come into Rutgers back yard and take them on. Are they getting a team that the 5 game losing streak broke? Or is this a team backed into a corner that is ready to come out swinging? The mindset of head coach Steve Owens would suggest the latter. Brett Sears being, well, “Brett Sears” for NU on Friday night is going to be super important. If he can hand the Knights their 6th B1G loss in a row, maybe they will doubt if they can make a run. On the other hand, if Rutgers can take out the Huskers biggest gun, they can get hot fast.

Pitching Probables

Game 1: RHP Brett Sears (6-0, 1.14 ERA) vs. LHP Justin Sinibaldi (4-0, 2.68 ERA)

Game 2: RHP Mason McConnaughey (3-2, 2.86 ERA) vs. RHP Jake Marshall (1-1, 4.97 ERA)

Game 3: RHP Drew Christo (1-2, 4.84 ERA) vs. RHP Christian Coppola (4-3, 6.38 ERA)

What else is there to say about Brett Sears? The (finally) Big Ten Pitcher of the Week has his masterpiece to show the conference and nation that he was for real. Not only did he pick up that award, but he was the NCBWA National Pitcher of the Week and was put on the watch list for the Golden Spike Award, meaning he is seen as one of the top 45 college baseball players nationally this season.

The rest of the rotation stays the same as it was last week against Ohio State. Mason McConnaughey has been more than serviceable in his 4 starts. He has given up some home runs over the past 2 weeks, but has struck out 11 vs 3 walks. He continues to grow, and as he's taken the Saturday spot in the rotation.

As he has an upward trajectory, Drew Christo seems to be in a lull. The low strikeout numbers while he was piling up innings warned that his stuff might not be great from batter to batter or even pitch to pitch. The odd thing about last week against Ohio State, was he had 4 Ks and 0 walks in 2.1 innings. Thats the best those numbers have looked, but his ball must not have been moving much. He was filling up the strike zone, but gave up 4 runs and 3 extra base hits.

Senior Jason Sinbaldi is picking up this year exactly where he left off in 2023. He has taken over the Friday night role heading into conference play since he boasts a 4-0 record and owns a complete game shutout of his own against UCONN. His walk to strikeout ratio is much better than last season as well, striking out 47 vs 7 walks in 53.2 innings.

After starting all of last season, then moving to more of a long reliever this year (basically the Shay Schanaman role from last years Nebraska team), Jake Marshall is transitioning back to starter. His ERA has been around 5.00 in his year plus at Rutgers, but he too has vastly improved his walks. After 37 walks last year in 51 innings, hes down to 10 in his 29 innings so far this season.

The big story of the Rutgers season has to be the struggles of Christian Coppola. As a freshman last season, he mowed through the Big Ten, earning 1st team all conference and being named a Freshman All American by every publication out there. His ERA this season is 6.38, and he has thrown the same amount of walks he had all last season already, with only half the amount of strikeouts. Coppola has had only 1 quality start in his 8 starts so far.

Scouting Report

The top offense in the Big Ten is being led by short stop Josh Kuroda-Grauer. He’s leading the Big Ten with a .423 batting average and 58 hits. He was one of the top recruits in NJ coming out of high school and has completely lived up to the hype. He provides a lot of speed too, stealing 18 bases in 20 attempts. Freshman first baseman Ty Doucette is on a hot streak to start his career. His OPS is 1.102 and he has 6 home runs and 26 RBIs.

One welcome addition back to the team has been Tony Santa Maria. He was injured all of last season after being one of the big cogs in the Rutgers team in 2022 that should have been an NCAA tournament team. He has slid over from SS to 3B now, with Kuroda-Grauer’s emergence last year and is putting up even better numbers than he did in 2022. He’s hitting .341 and is leading the team (and I think the conference, but the B1G’s website is down) with 9 home runs and 34 RBIs.

The bullpen is fairly average. Most of the heavily utilized arms have ERAs somewhere in the 4.75-7.00 range. Old Dominion grad transfer and closer Joey DeChiaro is the best arm of the bunch. He leads the pen in ERA with 2.77. He has 4 of the teams 7 saves on the season, but now that Jake Marshall is moving to starter once again, he will be the go to arm late in close games. He’s struck out 20 in the 13 innings he's pitched, but has also walked 15.

The defense, as always for a coach Owens team, is doing well, having a .977 fielding percentage. Previously mentioned freshman first baseman Ty Doucette is the only player with more than 3 errors on the year.

Series History

Nebraska has a 12-9 record against Rutgers on the diamond. The last meeting was a 9-7 Husker win to open last year’s Big Ten Tournament. You may remember that huge 6-run 7th inning for Nebraska, with a Gabe Swansen home run and then Rutgers issuing free pass after free pass with the bases loaded. Nebraska has not been to New Jersey since 2021 when they were playing in a pod and won 2 games vs Rutgers and split 2 games with Indiana.

Husker (Sears) Notes

• Nebraska 5-1 start ties its best start in Big Ten play. They’ve accomplished that record in the past in 2021, 2016 and 2013.
• Brett Sears leads the nation in WHIP (0.60) and hits allowed per 9 innings (3.90). Sears is 4th in ERA (1.14) and T-7th in wins with 6.
• Sears is the first Husker to start 6-0 since Tony Watson was 7-0 in 2006 and Joba Chamberlain went 8-0 in 2005.