Phoenix Hosts 2010 Elon Classic To Open Season
ELON, N.C. – Among the 56 games on the 2010 Elon Phoenix baseball schedule announced on Monday are 10 games against teams that participated in the 2009 NCAA Baseball Tournament. Of those 10 games, seven will be played against teams that advanced to either the Super Regionals or the College World Series (CWS) a year ago. Highlighting the slate compiled by head coach Mike Kennedy will be home dates with CWS participant North Carolina, Super Regional squad East Carolina and a three-game Southern Conference set with 2009 SoCon Tournament champ Georgia Southern. Ticket prices for the 2010 season have also been set.
“I believe that we’ve put together a very challenging schedule again in 2010,” said Kennedy. “This is the kind of schedule that, if we play well, will put us in a position to make a third straight trip to the postseason. The Southern Conference is always a competitive and balanced league. Our non-conference portion of the schedule is as tough as you
Elon Head Coach Mike Kennedy
will find with the likes of Rice, Nebraska, North Carolina, Clemson and East Carolina. The obvious challenge will be how well we handle such a demanding schedule.”
Elon will open its 2010 campaign by hosting the Elon Classic beginning with a 4 p.m. contest against Towson on Feb. 19. The Phoenix will also play host to Ohio and North Carolina A&T in the Classic that weekend.
Following a trip to Triad rival High Point (Feb. 23), Kennedy’s Phoenix will take flight to Houston, Texas where the squad will play in the Rice Invitational. In the opener, Elon will face 2009 Super Regional entrant and tournament host Rice at 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Feb. 26. On the 27th, the Phoenix will take on Texas A&M Corpus Christi before concluding the tournament with a tilt against Nebraska on the 28th.
The next weekend, Latham Park will host the Elon Invitational, which will feature the Phoenix taking on Bucknell (March 5), Princeton (doubleheader on March 6) and Radford (March 7).
After hosting Old Dominion (March 10), the Phoenix will open its SoCon regular-season title defense with play at Furman on March 12-14. The first home league series will come against The Citadel on March 19-21, following a mid-week home contest with UNC Wilmington (March 16).
The first of two six-game road swings begins with a two-game set at Super Regional squad Clemson (March 23-24). League foe Davidson (March 26-28) and Super Regional participant East Carolina (Mar. 30) follow on the trip before the Phoenix returns home to take on Wake Forest (March 31) to end the month of March.
April begins with a SoCon series at UNC Greensboro (April 2-4) before North Carolina visits Latham Park (April 6). After hosting Georgia Southern (April 9-11), the Phoenix will pay a visit to former Big South Conference rival Liberty (April 13).
Western Carolina will visit Elon (April 16-18) for a league weekend right after the Phoenix returns from the short trip to Wake Forest (April 14). High Point makes the return trip to Elon (April 21) right before Kennedy’s program heads to Mt. Pleasant, S.C. for a weekend SoCon series at College of Charleston (April 23-25).
Elon will play mid-week games at home with Liberty (April 27) and at North Carolina State (April 28) before visiting Wofford (April 30-May 2) for a SoCon set. The six-game road trip will conclude with visits to North Carolina (May 3) and UNC Wilmington (May 5).
The Phoenix is slated to play its final seven regular-season games at home, beginning with a SoCon series with Appalachian State (May 7-9). Two days after the conclusion of that series, the Phoenix will host East Carolina (May 11). Elon’s final SoCon set comes against Samford (May 19-21).
The 2010 Southern Conference tournament will be held at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C. beginning on May 25. The championship game will be played on May 29.
(Release)