PISCATAWAY -- On Tuesday, Jawuan Harris reached base in his first four plate appearances and stole three bases in the Rutgers baseball team's home loss to Rider.

On Thursday, the Scarlet Knights two-sport star was out practicing with the Rutgers football team during its first spring practice.

Harris' appearance in pads and a helmet was one of the highlights of the 50-minute portion of practice that was open to the media inside the Rutgers Bubble.

During spring camp last year, Harris was a frequent visitor at practice but wasn't in uniform. But during the Scarlet Knights' first of 14 practice sessions, Harris participated in a series of drills before leaving 40 minutes into practice.

"He's a baseball player and that's his first priority right now,'' Rutgers coach Chris Ash said following practice. "That's an agreement that we had. If the weekly schedule of baseball allows him to come over and be around football at all, then he can do it. (We're) excited about him that if he does have free time that fits within his hourly limit that he can come over and be part of the football team.

"Talking about player development, he struggled to be able to do that a year ago. With his maturity and understanding his body and his hour limits, he can make this thing work, where he gets a little bit of football. But, again, the priority is baseball.''

A 5-9, 192-pound, rising redshirt sophomore wide receiver, Harris returns as the Scarlet Knights' leading receiver with 39 receptions and 481 receiving yards during a 2-10 campaign last fall.

During stretching, Harris lined up with other first-team offensive players. That's not surprising considering he started eight of the 12 games he played in last season en route to earning All-Freshman Big Ten honors by BTN.

After earning All-Freshman baseball team honors from the Big Ten last spring, Harris has picked up where he left off, batting .292 with four home runs, nine RBI, three doubles and 13 stolen bases for the 6-14 Scarlet Knights.

The four home runs already surpasses his total from last season, and is tied with Tom Marcinczyk for the team lead. It also ranks tied for eighth in the Big Ten.

Harris also shares the Big Ten lead with his 13 stolen bases. The centerfielder now has 50 career swipes in 67 games, which is tied with former Major League Baseball player David DeJesus for 10th in school history.

"He's having a great (baseball) season,'' Ash said, "and we're excited about that.''

The Scarlet Knights are in action this weekend, traveling to Spartanburg, S.C., on Thursday for the start of a three-game series against the University of South Carolina Upstate beginning Friday evening.

Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.