Rutgers Bat and Ball Sports DOUBLE FEATURE

I attend TWO GAMES AT THE SAME TIME

3/29/2026

*This trip occurred on March 28, 2026.

I've also made a few visual updates to the blog, which were a bit of a struggle to implement in a way that's legible, but I do think it adds character.

I've gone over Rutgers and its various athletic programs MULTIPLE times in the past, but for those who don't know: Rutgers is...not exactly the "major sporting power" it seems to think it is (and I say this as an alumnus). We've got a football team that the rest of the Big Ten poaches easy wins from, a middling men's basketball team (even if they did some cool stuff when I saw them), a women's basketball team that largely scrapes by against seemingly "lesser competition" (then gets waxed by an actually decent team)¹, and also other things like a lacrosse team (which I THINK is supposed to be good but got blown out the day I saw them).

I'll be honest: this post was originally supposed to be about just baseball. I was originally considering going to something else today, but said trip is two an a half hours one way, and with gas prices where they are now (plus the game being in a place that is...not so great), I didn't think it was worth it (though I might try to go later this year). With nothing else going on today, I figured I'd take a look at the baseball team's schedule to see if they were home (as I had been thinking about a visit), and sure enough, they were!

However, when I got to the stadium, I found out that the softball team was also home, and had a game at the EXACT SAME TIME as the baseball team. Instead of deciding to go to one game or another, I thought

WHY NOT BOTH?

And ended up "alternating" between baseball and softball (which necessitated a MASSIVE rewrite of this post BTW). Since the two stadiums are separate venues for different sports, BOTH are going onto my 26 in 26 list as I've never been to either venue!

The two stadiums are basically right next to each other, and are VERY similar - both having received new renovations that just opened this year (though it seems like a lot of construction is still going on in the area). I'll go over the baseball team/stadium first, since that's the game that was intended for this post.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights Baseball (Big Ten) @ Bainton Field (Piscataway, NJ)

26 IN 26 STOP 8

An image of a pitch being thrown at a Rutgers baseball game

Unlike the sports I mentioned at the beginning of this post, college baseball doesn't seem to be that big a thing in the Northeast (though you could argue football isn't either, and in some respects, just college sports in general outside of Hockey East²). Yes, there are several relatively major schools that have baseball teams including Rutgers (in case you couldn't tell), but none of them really seem to pay that much attention to the sport, most of them have fairly small stadiums (save for perhaps UMass Lowell thanks to the Spinners), and admission to games is usually free (Rutgers included). Case in point: the last college baseball game I went to was on a multipurpose field shared with a soccer team.

I can't really say much about Rutgers baseball, but they went a while without a true head coach after being founded, they do have a College World Series appearance (WAY back in 1950³), one of their alumni is Todd Frazier (who had a decent MLB career), and the first time I actually heard about the existence of the program was because several of their players were in the Cape Cod Baseball League. However, one thing the baseball program here has that the aforementioned Seton Hall doesn't: a purpose built baseball stadium.

According to the university, Bainton Field was opened in 2007. I couldn't find any definitive answers on where the team played prior to Bainton being opened, but Wikipedia seems to indicate that they played on the same site (but with less amenities), and that "Bainton Field" was the result of a donation for the installation of a turf field (and, in typical college fashion, is named for the donor). What's more interesting for my visit, however, is an update that debuted this year, which includes new seats (i.e. chairback seats behind home plate) and press areas. Since this is my first visit, I can't exactly tell you what the place was like prior to this year, but I did find an image that indicated that the stands used to be simple metal bleachers, and a press area was at field level. In all honesty, though...there's really not much else to discuss about the place (save for the presence of a few outfield bleachers in left).

In some ways, this isn't the first time I've seen the stadium, as it's decently close to the basketball arena, but it's the first time I've actually seen it up close. It does TECHNICALLY have its own parking lot, but it's a gravel lot that's super small, so one of the major reasons this trip got delayed to now was due to me being unable to assess whether or not parking was free (for weekday games - it was free for today).

I should also mention that the school is working with Middlesex County on a more substantial stadium a few miles away in Edison, NJ on the campus of Middlesex (County) College; supposedly, the team will split games between the two stadia, but how that will play out is, obviously, yet to be seen (I'm also not fully sure of when it's going to open). Now, for the other stadium:

Rutgers Scarlet Knights Softball (Big Ten) @ Rutgers Softball Field (Piscataway, NJ)

26 IN 26 STOP 9

An image of a pitch being thrown at a Rutgers softball game

I feel like softball has a bit of a "rap" as "the women's equivalent to baseball" in the United States. Yes, it's true that NCAA (and professional) softball is a women's sport, but there's actually a bit more to softball than "baseball on a smaller field and with two less innings".

First, the pitcher's mound is not raised in softball, making the field completely flat. In addition, pitches are exclusively thrown underhand (as opposed to overhand or sidearm in baseball). Finally, there seems to be MUCH DIFFERENT rules for substitution; for example, there's something called a "Flex" which is a player which is a purely defensive as well as a role known as the "Designated Player" acts very similar to the Designated Hitter in baseball (except they bat in place of the Flex and NOT necessarily the pitcher). One thing I do find somewhat strange: despite being largely a women's sport, the fielders named for the bases are still referred to as "basemen" (i.e. first baseman, second baseman, and third baseman) - as opposed to other sports such as hockey, where the "linesmen" become "linepersons" in women's hockey⁴.

Anyway, Rutgers started its softball team in 1975 (around the same time as the women's basketball program FWIW), and have been to (what I THINK is) the Women's College World Series (i.e. the softball version of college baseball's championship) twice⁵. Also, Wikipedia indicates that they spent their first four years of existence without an official head coach (like the baseball team).

Unlike the baseball team, their field is still known as simply the "Rutgers Softball Field", but like Bainton, it just received pretty massive renovations this year. These renovations redid the grandstand (which, like Bainton, now features individual chairback seats and bleachers), but also added lights to the field (which means that this season is the first time the softball team is capable of hosting night games). This field also features a small set of outfield bleachers, but here, they're in right - and also hard to access as it seems the only way to get to them is from the main road (which divides the two fields from the basketball arena).

Due to the smaller stand, the proportion of chairback seats to bleacher spots here seems higher than Bainton - though that may just be due to size. Also, access to the dugouts is via the same walkways used to get to the stands - though security officers are positioned to avoid any unwelcome visitors to the dugout.

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Bat and ball sports are interesting in that they are meant to be played every day. During this visit, I reflected on this idea, and it made me wonder why I keep track of who wins and who loses in these posts, and whether or not I should really be focusing on that when there are so many other things I could/should be talking about on this blog...

(Translation: Rutgers lost both games. One was a blowout, and the other game ended with the winning run being a two-out, last inning home run - I'll let you figure out which team suffered which fate)

MERCH

Earlier, I mentioned that the schools here in the Northeast don't seem too interested in baseball. However, a few of the "bigger" ones DO have baseball hats/jerseys in their campus stores (which I've gotten in the past) - Rutgers being one of them⁶.

Here, there was a merch trailer in the dirt lot near the entrance to the fields. It did not have fitted baseball hats (though part of that may be due to Rutgers switching from Adidas to Nike recently), but there was a Nike replica baseball jersey. Sadly, it featured heat-pressed twill letters - something I absolutely HATE about modern jerseys - so I didn't even think about getting it (I did get a baseball and a softball - both featuring the Rutgers logo).

I also want to mention one other thing I saw on sale: stadium blankets! I realize that this is a thing that I've seen quite a bit in the past but never discussed, but a lot of teams around here sell blankets for fans to keep themselves warm during games, as sometimes it does get cold at night (or on days like today - it was in the 40s and SUPER windy).

As a side note, Princeton (which has been featured SEVERAL times on this blog) has its baseball and softball fields adjacent to each other as well, but I don't think I'll be getting down there for either sport this year. Their baseball field is neat in that the stands are built into a hill, but outside of that it doesn't seem like there's that much going on (and based on the soccer and hockey games I went to, merch is a massive question mark).

Also, I realize I named this post "bat and ball sports", but I doubt we're getting NCAA sponsored cricket anytime soon...

ON DECK

I HAD a trip I was thinking about making the day this is being published, but again...GAS PRICES.
(SPOILER ALERT: I was going to go to Philly).

Also, I know I said I'd probably stop doing this, but I honestly can't resist these little teases. However, I've decided that with how quickly I add new posts to this blog, it's really only super useful if there's a few days between posts (as I typically delete it once the new post goes up). Having said that, there's a chance I go to a game next weekend (or possibly earlier), but it's not set in stone, so...

BTW, don't ask what happened with the women's basketball team after the Winter Village... ↩
My thinking is that we try to care about college football because the rest of the country does (and in some places, it's bigger than the NFL), but no one here knows how to truly build a good program. Basketball is slightly different in that there are well-run top tier programs around here (see: the Big East), but because of just how dominant football is nationally, basketball is fading into the background (though the modern obsession with threes doesn't help). Also, exactly NONE of Hockey East in the NCAA tournament are left... ↩
To give an idea of how long ago that was, MLB still had the Boston Braves, Philadelphia Athletics, and St. Louis Browns. ↩
Yes, the more common plural is "linespepole", but that is a TERRIBLE name... ↩
The Women's College World Series has existed since 1969, but was run by another organization until 1982, when the NCAA took over. Rutgers' two WCWS appearances were prior to this takeover, so that's why I'm not sure how those are counted in NCAA records. ↩
The other schools I've gotten baseball hats/jerseys from are Boston College and UConn (multiple hats and one jersey from each school). Coincidentally, my decision to come here was made the day before they met in the Hockey East tournament. ↩

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