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FIU’s Wittels Heads This Week’s “By The Numbers”…

Garrett Wittels (FIU photo)

45…Game hitting streak by Florida International’s Garrett Wittels.  The sophomore had at least one hit in each of FIU’s three wins over South Alabama over the weekend to tie Roger Schmuck of Arizona State (1971) for the third longest Division One hitting streak of all-time.

47…Game hitting streak by Phil Stephenson of Wichita State in 1981 for the second longest streak in NCAA history.  Oklahoma State’s Robin Ventura’s 58 game streak (which ended at the 1987 College World Series) is the longest in DI history.

3…Teams that have qualified for the 2010 NCAA Baseball Tournament.  San Diego and Cal State Fullerton joined Ivy League champ Dartmouth by claiming the their regular season crowns over the weekend.  San Diego won the WCC thanks to losses by Portland, while Fullerton claimed at least a share of the Big West after sweeping Long Beach State.  The Titans own the tie-breaker with UC Irvine and need just one win or one Cal State Northridge loss to win the title outright.

18-2…Fullerton’s record in its last 20 games since losing game one of its series vs. Irvine back on April 9th.

19…Straight NCAA Tournament appearances Fullerton will make when it plays in its NCAA regional this season.  It’s the third longest active streak in the nation behind Miami (37) and Florida State (32).

47…Days it took to complete TCU‘s 19-17 win in 12 innings over Air Force to clinch the 2010 Mountain West

Matt Purke (TCU photo)

Conference Championship.  The game began on March 28th in Colorado Springs, and was suspended due to weather.  It resumed in the 7th inning Friday afternoon in Ft. Worth with TCU leading 16-15.

12…Strikeouts by TCU pitcher Matt Purke, who gave-up just a run on five hits in six innings of relief in that game to improve to 10-0.  The freshman is the Horned Frog’s regular Friday starter.

8…Home runs TCU hit in that game to help the Horned Frogs to a new school record total of 84 HR hit this season.  The record had stood since 1998.

3…Weekend wins by Kentucky (29-23, 12-15) over LSU to hand the defending national champions their fourth straight SEC series loss.  The Tigers (34-18, 12-15) have lost 11 of their last 12 SEC games and 12 of their last 14 games overall.

19…Years since Kentucky had last swept a weekend series from LSU.

21…Years since LSU played in the NCAA Tournament but did not host a Regional.  The Tigers played in College Station Texas that year.  LSU has hosted 18 NCAA Regionals since then, but could find themselves on the road when the tournament starts this year.

16-8…Score by which Indiana trailed Kentucky heading into the bottom of the 8th inning of Tuesday’s game vs. Kentucky.  The Hoosiers plated five runs with two outs in the 8th and then added three more in the 9th to force extra innings before Michael Early’s walk-off hit gave IU an improbable 18-17 victory.

0-for-6…What Early was at the plate in the game prior to drilling a pitch off the left field wall to plate Dylan Smith with the game-winning run.

4 & 7…Home runs hit and RBI’s by St. John’s left fielder Jeremy Baltz in Friday’s 8-5 win over #6 Louisville (the Red

Jeremy Baltz (SJU photo)

Storm lost the other two games in the series).  The freshman leads St. John’s with a .412 average, 18 home runs and 68 RBIs this season.

14-0…Northwestern’s lead over Michigan in the middle of the third inning Sunday in Ann Arbor.

15-14…The final score of Michigan’s comeback win over the Wildcats.  The game ended on Mike Dufek’s walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning.

5 2/3…Scoreless innings pitched by Wolverine reliever Matt Miller to pick-up the win.  The junior struck out seven and gave-up just two hits to keep the Wildcats scoreless while Michigan scored the last nine of its 15 unanswered runs.

14…Straight games Virginia has won after sweeping North Carolina over the weekend.  North Carolina (32-20, 11-16) had won eight straight and 10 of its last 11 games heading into the series with the Cavs (43-9, 21-6).

2…Walk-off hits the Cavaliers needed to pull off the sweep.  John Barr’s 2-out RBI single capped Saturday’s game one 3-2 victory,  while John Hicks ended Sunday’s 5-3 win with a 3-run home run.

900…Wins at Ohio State by head coach Bob Todd after Sunday’s 11-6 win over Iowa for the Buckeyes’ lone win of the 3-game series.  Todd will retire at season’s end.

7…Scoreless innings pitched by South Carolina’s bullpen in a 3-game weekend sweep of Arkansas.  Five relievers combined to give-up just two hits after starter Tyler Webb left after giving-up three runs in three innings in Sunday’s 5-3 win to cap the sweep.

33…Consecutive Big South Conference games won by #5 Coastal Carolina (45-6, 23-0) after a 3-game sweep of #39 Liberty (37-15, 18-6).  The Chanticleers remain in good shape to receive a top 8 national seed after sweeping the second place team in their conference.

14,619…Fans who saw Florida’s 3-game sweep of Georgia over the weekend in Gainesville.  It’s the best 3-game attendance figure in program history.  Florida (37-12, 20-7) and South Carolina (41-11, 29-7) are tied for first place in the SEC East.  They go head to head this weekend.

4…Straight SEC series won by Auburn after taking two of three games from Tennessee.  The Tigers (35-17, 17-10) now lead the SEC West.

15…Years since Auburn last won the SEC’s Western Division.  They close the regular season this weekend at Ole Miss.

Anthony Rendon (Rice photo)

10…Run deficit faced by Rice as the Owls prepared to bat in the bottom of the third inning Sunday vs. Southern Mississippi.

19…Unanswered runs Rice scored to beat the Golden Eagles 21-14.  Anthony Rendon paced the Owls, going 4-for-5 with two home runs and 4 RBIs to help Rice lock-up the top seed in the Conference USA Tournament.

7…RBIs by USM’s B.A. Vollmuth in the loss.  The sophomore shortstop belted a pair of home runs himself, including a grand slam.

1,000…Career wins by Arizona head coach Andy Lopez after his Wildcats topped #1 Arizona State 12-4 Sunday night in Tucson.  Lopez is the 16th active coach and the 46th all-time Division One coach to reach the milestone.

1…Loss by ASU’s Merrill Kelly (9-1) this season after giving-up six runs (five earned) in just 3 2/3 IP-his shortest start of the season.  The 12 runs are the most given-up by the Sun Devils this year.

25…Consecutive scoreless innings pitched by Rhode Island’s Tim Boyce (a new URI school record).  The senior struck out 10 and gave-up just two singles with his second straight complete game shutout in Friday’s 6-0 win over Richmond.

27 1/3…Consecutive scoreless innings pitched by Wichita State’s Jordan Cooper after Friday’s 3-0 win over Missouri State.  The sophomore fanned 14 and struck out at least one batter in every inning to improve to 8-2.

69…Walks issued to UT Arlington outfielder Michael Choice this season to set a new Southland Conference single season record.  Choice is batting .401 with 16 home runs and 58 RBIs for the Mavericks (26-26).  He was walked

Tony Nix (UC Riverside photo)

intentionally in the first inning of Sunday’s 11-8 win over Lamar to set the record.

19…Times Choice has been intentionally walked this season to help him lead the nation with his 69 free passes 2010.

10…Big Ten teams that are all still alive in the race to qualify for next week’s 6-team Big Ten Tournament. Four  teams, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, and Iowa, are tied for fifth place.

.266…UC Riverside’s Tony Nix’s season batting average entering last week’s action.

.341…Nix’s current average after a week in which he was 17-for-26 with three home runs, five doubles, a triple, 11 runs scored, and 15 RBIs.  Nix had a stretch during which he had nine straight hits, including a 6-for-6 game against Loyola Marymount.

4…Home runs hit by Bucknell’s Paul Shribman to help the #4 seed Bison beat #1 seed Army in the Patriot League’s best two of three semifinal series.  Shribman belted a grand slam in the series clinching win and finished the weekend by batting 8-for-13 with 9 RBIs and 7 runs scored.  Bucknell faces #3 seed Holy Cross in this weekend’s Patriot League Championship Series.

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Five Teams To Play 10 Games In Four Day Event

San Jose's Municipal Stadium

and facilities, including the renovation of the batting cages at Blethen Field, their practice and alternate game site on South Campus.

San Jose State will co-host the event with Santa Clara University, another program that Gifford contributed to. The Broncos are led by ninth-year head coach Mark O’Brien, who played for Piraro’s Spartans in 1991-92, earning team captain distinction as a senior before graduating in 1993. The five-team, 10-game tournament features San Jose State, Santa Clara, UC Davis, Southern Illinois University and the United States Air Force Academy.

Five of the games are slated to take place at San Jose Municipal Stadium, beginning with a neutral-site tilt between Air Force and UC Davis on Thursday night, March 11, at 6:00 p.m. San Jose State plays host to Air Force on Friday, March 12, and Southern Illinois on Saturday, March 13, with first pitch set for 6:00 p.m. for both of those contests. The Spartans round out their involvement with a doubleheader on Sunday, March 14, taking on Air Force at 11:00 a.m. and UC Davis at 3:00 p.m.

Santa Clara is set to host five games of its own at Stephen Schott Stadium, which opened on campus in 2005. The Broncos face Southern Illinois on March 11 (6:00 p.m.) and March 14 (1:00 p.m.) around match-ups with Air Force (1:00 p.m.) and UC Davis (6:00 p.m.) on March 13. UC Davis plays Southern Illinois inside Schott Stadium on Friday, March 12, at 6:00 p.m.

“The genesis of the tournament was something Coach O’Brien and I discussed prior to Jack’s passing,” explained Piraro. “We have to handle scheduling two to three years in advance, and felt it would be good for the community if we were able to establish a tournament which was not going to be overly costly, but still could attract good Division I teams to participate. We agreed to give it a two-year commitment, so we have this tournament through 2011.

“When Jack passed, I suggested to Coach O’Brien that we consider naming the tournament after him, since Jack was such an important part of our programs, with his tremendous support for both schools, among others. We just felt that this would be a great way to give him some everlasting recognition. Coach O’Brien agreed 100 percent, and so the process began.

“We checked with the family, to see if they were in favor of it. The first person that I contacted was Mrs. (Rhodine) Gifford. I informed her of our intentions, and she was very enthusiastic. She thought that it was a great idea, and referred us to her son-in-law, Kevin Lynch. We then had lunch with Kevin, again just letting him know what we want to do, what some of the logistics are, some of the future plans, expenses, things of that nature, and he was very excited as well.

Santa Clara's Stephen Schott Stadium

“We have a good feeling about this tournament because it gives us a chance to keep Jack in the back of our minds, be able to have his name in perpetuity, and just give recognition to someone who was so vivacious, and so important to us.”

Gifford attended UCLA on a baseball scholarship, graduating in 1963. He started his career in the semiconductor industry in 1964 at the age of 24 with Fairchild Semiconductor. Gifford went on to co-found Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), run Intersil, and found and serve as the CEO since 1983 of Maxim Integrated Products, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. Considered one of the founding fathers of the analog microchip industry, he retired as Maxim’s CEO in 2007.

Inaugural Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament

Hosts:

San Jose State University, San Jose Municipal Stadium, San Jose, Calif.

Santa Clara University, Stephen Schott Stadium, Santa Clara, Calif.

Dates: Thursday, March 11-Sunday, March 14, 2010

Participating Teams: San Jose State, Santa Clara, Air Force, UC Davis and Southern Illinois

Tournament Schedule:

Thursday, March 11

Southern Illinois at Santa Clara, Stephen Schott Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

Air Force at UC Davis, Municipal Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

Friday, March 12

Southern Illinois at UC Davis, Stephen Schott Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

Air Force at San Jose State, Municipal Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 13

Santa Clara at Air Force, Stephen Schott Stadium, 1:00 p.m.

UC Davis at Santa Clara, Stephen Schott Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

San Jose State at Southern Illinois, Municipal Stadium, 6:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 14

San Jose State at Air Force, Municipal Stadium, 11:00 a.m.

Santa Clara at Southern Illinois, Stephen Schott Stadium, 1:00 p.m.

UC Davis at San Jose State, Municipal Stadium, 3:00 p.m.

(Release)

Defending WAC Champs To Play 30 Of 56 Games At Home

San Jose State Head Coach Sam Piraro

56 games, 36 will be against teams with a .500 or better overall record in 2009.
Complete 2010 San Jose State Schedule
Piraro, the four-time WAC Coach of the Year who has earned that distinction in back-to-back seasons, leads San Jose State into Moraga, Calif., to begin the new campaign at Saint Mary’s College on Friday afternoon, February 19. First pitch at Louis Guisto Field is at 2:00 p.m.

The Spartans open the home schedule the following day against the same Saint Mary’s Gaels, at 1:00 p.m. inside San Jose Municipal Stadium, with the three-game set against their area rivals concluding back in Moraga on Sunday, February 21, also at 1:00 p.m.

The Spartans host UC Santa Barbara of the Big West Conference for three to close the month of February. San Jose State welcomes West Coast Conference rival USF for the home leg of its annual two-game set with the Dons on Tuesday night, March 2, at 6:00 p.m. inside Muni.

This year’s three-game series with South Bay foe Santa Clara will see two games at the Broncos’ Stephen Schott Stadium around a 1:00 p.m. meeting at Muni on Saturday, March 6.

After a home date with Southern Illinois on Wednesday night, March 10, San Jose State is proud to co-host the inaugural Jack Gifford Memorial Tournament with Santa Clara, March 11-14. Five of the games are set to take place at Municipal Stadium, including a neutral-site match-up between Air Force and UC Davis to kick things off on March 11. The final day will have the Spartans in action twice, against Air Force at 11:00 a.m. and UC Davis at 3:00 p.m.

On the weekend of March 19-21, San Jose State travels by bus down to Cal State Bakersfield for a three-game set. After a mid-week home contest against UC Davis, the Spartans take on another Big West opponent in Pacific three times, March 26-28, with the first two in San Jose.

A three-game home series with BYU of the Mountain West Conference begins the month of April for San Jose State. That leads into a season-long six-game road stretch which starts at USF, goes through Ruston, La., and ends at UC Davis with a third attle against the Aggies.

The WAC portion of the 2010 schedule opens at Louisiana Tech for four games, April 9-11. The WAC slate, for a second year in a row, features 24 games, with 12 at home and 12 on the road.

New Mexico State heads into town for a four-games-in-four-days league set, April 16-19. All four contests will thus be of the regulation nine-inning variety, whereas nightcaps of the usual WAC doubleheaders will again go seven frames in 2010. The first two meetings with the Aggies, who, like the Spartans, notched 40-plus wins a year ago only to get left out of the NCAA post-season, will be day affairs at Blethen Field, with the last two, including a Monday night finale, at Muni.

That series will set the stage for a much-anticipated appearance in Wichita, Kan., and Eck Stadium-Home of Tyler Field for three games against one of college baseball’s more storied programs in long-time head coach Gene Stephenson’s Wichita State Shockers, April 23-25. The two schools have never before met in baseball.

San Jose State welcomes retiring 32nd-year head coach John Smith’s Sacramento State Hornets to Blethen Field for all four games of their league match-up, April 30-May 2, before travelling up the freeway to take on the Stanford Cardinal on Tuesday, May 4.

What follows is a bus trip to Reno, Nev., and Peccole Park, home of the Nevada Wolf Pack, May 7-9. The home-and-home with Stanford concludes at Municipal Stadium on Wednesday night, May 12, at 6:00 p.m. The Spartans round out the WAC road schedule with another bus ride south to Fresno, Calif., for four games with the rival Bulldogs of Fresno State, May 14-16.

For the fifth successive year, the Spartans finish the regular season in San Jose, but after completing it three straight times against Nevada, the Rainbows of the University of Hawai’i pay a visit in 2010. All four games will be played at Muni, with Senior Day slated for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch on Sunday, May 23.

The 2010 season will be the first in a three-year agreement to hold the WAC Tournament at a neutral site, Hohokam Park, the spring training home of the Chicago Cubs, in Mesa, Ariz. The six-team, double-elimination tournament takes place May 26-30.

The 64-team NCAA Championship starts with 16 four-team Regionals, June 4-7. The eight two-team Super Regionals will be held at campus sites, June 11-14, with the 2010 Men’s College World Series set once again for Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb., June 19-30.

San Jose State went 41-20 a year ago and won the WAC regular-season championship, its first league title since the 2000 team shared the crown on its way to the program’s first College World Series. The 2010 campaign marks the 10-year anniversary of that achievement, when the Spartans won an identical 41 contests, tied for the third-best total in program history.

Over the past three seasons, the Spartans have produced the most wins and best overall record among the nine Division I baseball programs in Northern California. They have gone 106-71 for a winning percentage of .599, finishing ahead of those nine squads in two of the last three years with marks of 41-20 (.672) in 2009 and 34-26 (.567) in 2007. Stanford is 99-77-2 (.562) while fellow Pacific-10 Conference contender California is 86-76-2 (.530) during this three-year span, with UC Davis, Pacific, Sacramento State, Saint Mary’s, USF and Santa Clara all finding lesser amounts of success since the start of the 2007 season.

“I feel that the schedule is very challenging,” commented Piraro, now in his 23rd season. “I don’t see a series or opponent that we’re going to be successful against if we don’t perform at our best. We face a lot of California teams, and people know that there are no weak teams in California. We have a difficult travel schedule, with some great opponents. Obviously, the one that might catch more attention than others is Wichita State. To me, it’s a regular series, but of course it is a great opportunity for our players to go back to the Midwest and compete in an environment and setting in which college baseball is really big. The crowds will be large, but that’s not to take away from any of the other non-conference opponents that we are playing.

“We have our (Jack Gifford Memorial) tournament, we play UC Santa Barbara at home, which will be a great series, we have the series with Santa Clara, we have a series with Saint Mary’s, USF, Pacific, UC Davis, we go to Cal State Bakersfield, and BYU comes in for a series in April, just prior to starting conference.

“We open up the conference schedule at Louisiana Tech, which is one of the most challenging travel venues in college baseball. We are going to have home series against New Mexico State and Sacramento State. We have to go on the road to Nevada and Fresno State, which is a large task, and end the regular season with Hawai’i at home.

“We have a tremendous challenge in front of us (to repeat). Winning the championship last year was a great accomplishment, but we lost almost our entire pitching staff. We return just four wins out of 41. We are really going to have to develop these pitchers through January and February in preparation for the new season, because we have a daunting task ahead. That’s not to be negative, but it is pragmatic. This time last year, we were very confident that we had the makings of an experienced team, which carries a lot of weight in college baseball. We no longer have that in the pitching ranks. It’s inexperienced, it’s young, it’s unproven, and that’s an area where I would prefer not to be unproven.

“The positive is that the future is going to be very good, because these young men are going to get some great experience through their process of maturing, and could be a quality unit within a year. My goal is to have them develop quicker. That is our objective.

“The schedule will be demanding and unrelenting,” concluded Piraro. “Every competition is going to demand our ultimate excellence on the field. We need to stay healthy, and we need to develop our pitching staff as we go along.”

(Release)

OMAHA, Neb. – Eleven games in Rosenblatt Stadium’s final season, games against five NCAA Tournament participants and three meetings with local rival Nebraska highlight this year’s 2010 Creighton Baseball schedule, which was released late Monday.

The Jays kick-off its 54 game schedule on Feb. 20 with a doubleheader in Conway, Ark. against Central Arkansas and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville. The Bluejays will start the season with a 21-game road trip before playing its home opener against Indiana State on April 2 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

Creighton Head Coach Ed Servais

The Jays will also close its home slate with a Rosenblatt matinee against New Orleans on May 22 at 12:00 p.m. It will be the last regular season game the Jays play at the park, as they will play a handful of games at TD AMERITRADE Park Omaha in 2011 before moving in as full-time tenants in 2012.

Complete 2010 Creighton Schedule

The Jays non-conference season is highlighted by six games against four NCAA Regional participants from last season. The first of which will be Southland Conference champions Sam Houston State, who the Jays will play on March 5 and 7^th.

Minnesota is next on Creighton’s list of tourney teams, as the Jays will face the Golden Gophers at the Metrodome on March 13 in the Metrodome Tournament.

Kansas State and Kansas round out the Jays’ non-conference, ’09 tourney-team lineup, as they will face KSU in Manhattan on March 16. Creighton and Kansas will play a home-and-home set, as the Jays will visit Lawrence on March 23 and the Jayhawks will play at Rosenblatt on April 7.

After the season opener in Arkansas, the Jays will play in three tournaments, two of which will be in Texas. ULM, Northwestern State (La.) and Stephen F. Austin will be the opponents at the Stephen F. Austin Tournament while Northern Colorado and Sam Houston State will tangle with the Jays at SHSU’s tournament.

After a single non-conference game at Texas-Arlington, Creighton will play in the Metrodome Tournament in Minneapolis. The Jays will play South Dakota State on March 12, host Minnesota on the 13^th and Harvard on the 14^th.

The Jays will play a three-game set in Chicago against 2009 Horizon League regular season champ Illinois-Chicago before jumping into its 21-game, Missouri Valley Conference schedule.

The Jays be on the road at Southern Illinois on March 26-28, and will also have road conference series at Bradley and Missouri State.

Along with Indiana State, the Jays will host Valley opponents Illinois State, Evansville and 2009 regional participant Wichita State.

Creighton hosts two of the three games against Nebraska at Rosenblatt Stadium. An April 6 trip to Lincoln precedes games on April 20 and May 18 in Omaha.

Creighton will also play host to Big Ten foe Iowa, along with Air Force, Seattle University and New Orleans in its other non-conference home games.

The State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament will be played from May 25-29 at Eck Stadium in Wichita, Kan. It will be the second straight year Wichita has played host to the tournament.

The Jays finished last season 31-25, falling in the MVC title game to Wichita State. Creighton will look for its first NCAA regional appearance since 2007, and third under head coach Ed Servais.

(Release)

BATON ROUGE — The 2009 LSU Baseball team received its national championship rings at a special ceremony Saturday in Alex Box Stadium.

• LSU head coach Paul Mainieri was inducted into the St. Thomas University Hall of Fame on Sunday, November 1.  Mainieris was the head coach at St. Thomas from 1983 to 1988 prior to his first Division I job at Air Force.  Four of his St. Thomas teams were ranked in the Divsion II top ten during his tenture.
• LSU is holding an on-going on-line auction for memorabilia from the old Alex Box Stadium.  Things like infield dirt, framed pieces of net that hung behind home plate, seats, signs, and other memorabilia are available at www.alexboxauctions.net.

Rebels To Play Home Heavy Slate

Complete 2010 UNLV Baseball Schedule (PDF)

“We are keeping season ticket prices the same as last year, and with the new RBI Family Pack, it will make Rebel

UNLV Head Coach Buddy Gouldsmith

baseball affordable fun for families to attend,” Gouldsmith said. “We live in a destination city that teams want to visit and we owe it to our season tickets holders, fans and our community to play as many home games as possible. I feel like this season’s home schedule is very attractive for our fans.”

Other teams that will be traveling to Las Vegas during that span include Southern Utah (Feb. 23), Temple (Feb. 26-28), Columbia (March 5-7), Northwestern (March 11-13) and Long Beach State (March 19-21). The Rebels will also play non-conference games at Arizona (March 2-3) and at Cal State Northridge (March 16) during the first month of the season. This season also has fewer doubleheaders than last year, as the NCAA reverted back to its previous start time, with the season lasting longer and allowing teams to play more midweek games.

It will be great for college baseball and for our team to get back to playing more four-game weeks,” Gouldsmith said. “That will surely make for better matchups in the middle of the week.”UNLV opens up Mountain West Conference play on the road, traveling to BYU for a three-game series on March 25-27, and the Rebels’ league opener will be against New Mexico the following week on April 1-3. The rest of the league home slate includes Air Force (April 30-May 2), BYU (May 6-8) and Utah (May 14-16), while the Rebels will travel to Utah (April 9-11), TCU (April 23-25) and San Diego State (May 20-22). The Aztecs, Horned Frogs and Utes represented the MWC in the 2009 NCAA Tournament, with TCU advancing to a super regional.

The rest of the Rebels’ non-conference home schedule includes a two-game series with Texas Tech (April 5-6) and single games against UC Riverside (April 27) and Cal State Northridge (May 18). UNLV will also travel to in-state rival Nevada, Reno (March 30), Southern Utah (April 13), Tulane (April 16-18) and UC Riverside (May 11). This will be the first trip to Tulane for Gouldsmith as a coach since he left after serving as an assistant for the Green Wave for four years, helping the school to its first-ever College World Series appearance in 2001.

“Our schedule is well-balanced and we have worked hard to ensure that it minimizes the days of school we have to miss, while giving us the opportunity to earn a regional bid without having to win the conference tournament,” Gouldsmith said. “I am excited for our team to visit New Orleans. It will be a good road test in what will surely be a great college baseball atmosphere as Tulane always has big crowds, creating a difficult environment to play in.”

The MWC Tournament will be hosted by San Diego State this season and it will be played at Tony Gwynn Stadium in San Diego on May 25-29, where the league’s automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament will be up for grabs. Last year the MWC set a record by having three teams advancing to play in the NCAA Tournament, with Utah earning the league’s automatic bid and San Diego State and TCU receiving at-large selections.

(Press Release)