Rutgers Baseball Left Out of NCAA Tournament

There are sometimes in sports when eyebrows are raised. And this is one of those times.

The 2022 Rutgers Scarlet Knights baseball team, a program that won a record 45 games, rolled through the Big Ten in the regular season with a record of 17-7, and ran all the way to the Big Ten title game will not make it to the NCAA Tournament. It was a surprising move to many.

As has been pointed out by many publications, Rutgers was considered a team that would make the tournament this season, its first bid since 2007.  By Memorial Day Monday, they were out simply because they lost the automatic bid by losing to Michigan in the Big Ten title game.

NJ.com suggested that Rutgers' "low RPI" of 42 and a "weak non-conference slate" may have played a role in keeping the Scarlet Knights out of the dance this summer. Only two Big Ten teams qualified for the tournament: Michigan, who beat Rutgers 10-4 on Sunday night, and Maryland, who was the number 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament going in.

How good was this year's Scarlet Knights team? Here are the numbers from NJ.com: "The Scarlet Knights led Division I baseball in runs scored per game (9.7) and rank among the best teams in the nation in a number of other offensive categories, including doubles (second nationally), hits (third), batting average (fifth), slugging percentage (eighth), on-base percentage (11th) and home runs (17th)."

Senior catcher Nick Cimilio was 18th in the nation in slugging percentage .707 and 23rd in on-base percentage .492. Five players had double-digits in home runs with Cimilio and Chris Brito tied for the team lead with 16. Grad student Nathan Florence was one of the best pitchers in the Big Ten with a 3.36 ERA in 15 starts and a record of 6-2.