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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia University Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong has announced the 2010 baseball schedule, highlighted by 32 home games and five matchups against 2009 NCAA Tournament participants.

“Coach Greg Van Zant has put together one of his most competitive schedules to date,” Pastilong said. “We are looking forward to another year of exciting baseball that features several quality opponents and some very challenging early-season tournaments.”

West Virginia opens the season with three competitive tournaments. The Mountaineers start off with the Caravelle Resort Tournament in Conway, S.C., featuring games against 2009 NCAA Tournament qualifier Coastal Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia Tech on Feb. 19-21.

WVU then makes a trip to the second annual Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge in Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Fla., from Feb.

Greg Van Zant (WVU Photo)

26-March 1. West Virginia will compete against reigning Big Ten champion Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State and will play an additional game against Purdue.

Complete 2010 West Virginia Schedule

The final early-season tournament is the Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, N.C., from March 5-7. West Virginia faces Western Carolina, then battles 2009 Super Regional qualifier East Carolina before finishing with Illinois.

“All three of our tournaments are ranked as some of the top tournaments in the country,” Van Zant said. “We’re going to see some real good teams early in the season, and we’re looking forward to playing against them. We’re really going to be challenged these first 10 games.”

The Mountaineers make a return trip to Charleston, W.Va., to play Eastern Kentucky in the Mountaineer Diamond Classic at Appalachian Power Park on April 13. Last season’s contest in Southern West Virginia against Kentucky featured a capacity crowd of 2,452 that saw WVU defeat the Wildcats, 10-7.

“We always look forward to playing in our state capital,” Van Zant added. “Last year we had a great turnout and a huge win over Kentucky. We can’t wait to return to Charleston and play a different opponent in Eastern Kentucky, which is a strong program out of the Ohio Valley Conference.”

WVU’s Big East schedule includes five home series against NCAA Super Regional qualifier Louisville (April 16-18), Notre Dame (May 8-9), Big East postseason runner-up Connecticut (April 1-3), Pitt (April 23-25) and Villanova (May 20-22). The Mountaineers will play Seton Hall (March 26-28), St. John’s (April 9-11), Cincinnati (April 30-May 2) and Georgetown (May 14-16) on the road.

“The Big East schedule is always difficult, and this year we’ve got five of our opponents at home,” Van Zant mentioned. “It’s a big plus to have that extra weekend at home and all our games in the conference will be tough. We do feel that we have a real attractive home schedule.”

Also mixed into the non-conference portion is another matchup against Atlantic Coast Conference rival Maryland on April 7 in College Park, Md. The Mountaineers and Terrapins have played each other in five of the last eight seasons.

WVU plays host to a two-game series against defending MEAC champion and NCAA Tournament participant Bethune-Cookman from May 11-12.

West Virginia finished 37-18 last season, its best overall mark since 1998. The Mountaineers finished third in the BIG EAST and amassed 17 conference victories, its second-most since joining the BIG EAST in 1996.

Last year’s squad also set school records for batting average (.360), RBIs (491), doubles (161), extra base hits (242) and runs scored (525).

(Release)

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Illini to Face Tough Slate in 2010

Illinois Head Coach Dan Hartleb

Complete 2010 Illinois Schedule (PDF)
The Illini will open the season with a two-game home series against Bradley on Feb. 20-21, then will travel to the Clearwater/St. Petersburg, Fla., area, for the Big Ten/BIG EAST Challenge, where it will face the challenging trio of Notre Dame, South Florida and St. John’s, three of the top five teams in BIG EAST conference play last year.

The next weekend, the Orange and Blue will travel to the Keith LeClair Invitational Tournament hosted by East Carolina, and will face the host Pirates, Western Carolina and West Virginia. The following weekend will be the Caravelle Resort Classic in Conway, S.C., where Illinois will play host Coastal Carolina twice as well as Lipscomb and Ball State. Over spring break, the Illini will take its annual trip to Winter Haven, Fla., where it will play in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. Illinois will face 2009 NCAA Tournament qualifier Dartmouth twice as well as Bucknell, Akron, North Dakota State and Southeastern (FL) University.

After Spring Trip, the Illini will travel to Illinois State on March 30 and return home on March 31 for a game against Chicago State before opening the Big Ten slate against Penn State at Illinois Field. The next week will by a trying one for Illinois, as it travels to Bradley, faces Missouri at Busch Stadium on April 7, and travels to Iowa for a weekend series.

The Illini will return home to host Eastern Illinois on April 13 before traveling to Marion, Ill., for the annual game against Southern Illinois at Rent One Park on April 14. That weekend, Michigan comes to Illinois Field for a three-game series before Illinois State visits Champaign on April 20. The Illini face EIU for the second time in eight days on April 21 when the two teams meet at Grimes Field at Peterson Park in Mattoon, the site of the teams’ matchup in 2008. That weekend, the Illini wrap up the first half of Big Ten play at Michigan State.

Illinois then returns home for its longest home stand of the season, a six-game stretch in which it faces Bradley, Northwestern, Southern Illinois and Butler. The Illini then travel to Ohio State for a weekend series before taking off the middle of the week for final exams. Illinois gets back to action by hosting Purdue for a three-game series and finishing its mid-week slate with a contest at Illinois Field against Western Michigan on May 18. Illinois finishes the regular season with a trip to Bloomington, Ind., for the final Big Ten series of the season. The Big Ten Tournament will be May 26-29.

(Release)

WCU’s 56-game schedule features 28 home dates and 30 SoCon games

WCU Head Coach Bobby Moranda

Carolina. Our players and coaches are honored to participate in an event that was named for one of our most respected alum. I am a big believer in a strong schedule that will challenge our players to execute the game of baseball at the highest possible level each and every time they take the field.”

Complete 2010 Western Carolina Schedule

Western Carolina will open its 2010 season at home at Ronnie G. Childress Field at Hennon Stadium on Friday, Feb. 19 as it welcomes the Gardner-Webb Runnin’ Bulldogs to town for an afternoon game. The two will complete the three-game series in Forest City, N.C., at McNair Field, the home of the Coastal Plain League member, Forest City Owls, Feb. 20-21.

Additional early-season, non-conference foes visiting Cullowhee include Eastern Kentucky – Moranda’s alma mater – on Feb. 26-28, with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville coming to town for a two-game set March 9-10. It will be the first meeting between the two since 1978.

Between the EKU and SIU-Edwardsville dates, the Catamounts will again travel to Greenville, N.C., to participate in the Seventh Annual Keith LeClair Classic at East Carolina’s Clark-LeClair Stadium. The three-day tournament includes the host Pirates and Catamounts, as well as meetings with West Virginia and Illinois. The tournament is named in honor of WCU Hall of Famer, former head coach at WCU and ECU, Keith LeClair, who passed away in July of 2006 after a battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Western hosts first-time foe, New York Tech, in Cullowhee at the beginning of April.

The Catamounts will also have home-and-home, non-conference meetings with Charlotte, UNC Asheville and High Point. Also, after a meeting in Knoxville on April 7, former WCU head coach Todd Raleigh will bring his Tennessee Volunteers to Childress Field/Hennon Stadium in Cullowhee on Wednesday, April 21.

“It is a testament to our program’s great tradition that Coach Raleigh and a very talented Tennessee squad will visit Cullowhee in 2010. Over the last two seasons, we have attracted BCS conference schools such as Clemson, BYU, Georgia Tech and now UT to Cullowhee. I know our fans will be very excited to welcome Todd back for this mid-week match-up,” Moranda added.

Other headline road trips include visiting Georgia Tech on Tuesday, March 2 and Georgia on Wednesday, April 28.

Western Carolina, which finished 35-22 overall and 19-10 in SoCon play a season ago and won 18 of its 30 home games, will host conference opponents College of Charleston (March 26-28), Wofford (April 9-11), UNC Greensboro (April 30-May 2) and Furman (May 7-10). The Catamounts will wrap-up their 2010 regular season slate by hosting Davidson on May 20-22 before traveling to Charleston for the conference championship.

SoCon road trips this season include visiting The Citadel for its conference opener, March 12-14, with a trip to Boone and arch-rival, Appalachian State, the following weekend (March 19-21). Other road three-game conference series include at Elon (April 16-18), Georgia Southern (April 23-28) and Samford (May 14-16).

Western Carolina will resume individual preparations for the 2010 season on January 11, with the first official team practice scheduled for February 1, per NCAA regulations.

(Release)

Pirates Play Six Teams That Appeared In 2009 NCAA Regionals

ECU Head Coach Billy Godwin

The 2010 slate features 17 games against teams that earned a bid to the 2009 NCAA Regionals; 32 against teams with 30-plus wins; five that topped the 40-plus win plateau; two that made trips to the College World Series and five that finished ranked in the Top 25 polls, including three in the Top 10.

ECU will open play on Friday, Feb. 19 against College World Series participant Virginia in a three-game tilt and will stay home for their next four games, a midweek match-up against former Colonial Athletic Association foe Old Dominion (Feb. 23) and three games against 2009 Greenville Regional participant South Carolina (Feb. 26-28).

Conference USA play opens April 2 for the Pirates when they welcome league foe Tulane to town for a three-game series. Other C-USA schools making the trek to Greenville in 2010 include UAB (Apr. 16-18), Marshall (Apr. 30-May 2) and Houston (May 20-22).

League road trips include Memphis (Apr. 9-11), Super Regional participant Rice (Apr. 23-25), College World Series participant Southern Miss (May 7-9) and UCF (May 14-16).

ECU’s home non-conference schedule is highlighted by the annual Keith LeClair Classic that pits the Pirates against Illinois (Mar. 5), West Virginia (Mar. 6) and Western Carolina (Mar. 7). Also scheduled for weekend series in Greenville are NCAA Regional participant Monmouth (Mar. 19-21) and North Carolina Central (Mar. 26-28), which serves as the Pirates’ C-USA open weekend.

The first of 20 games away from Clark-LeClair Stadium occurs when the Pirates travel to High Point (Mar. 2), which is followed by a west-coast trip to face Cal State Northridge (Mar. 10) and Pepperdine (Mar. 11-13) during their spring break.

Along with NCAA Regional participant Elon (Mar. 30 and May 11), ECU will have home-and-home series against UNC Wilmington (Mar. 31 and Apr. 27) and Campbell (Apr. 13 and 20), while also playing High Point (Mar. 23), Gardner Webb (Mar. 16), N.C. State (Apr. 21) and James Madison (May 18).

”We have put together another outstanding schedule,” said Godwin. ”Our players look forward to playing on a national stage and our conference and non-conference schedules give them the opportunity to compete with some of the top teams in the country.”

The Pirates, who have made 10 NCAA Regional appearances in the last 11 seasons, claimed the 2009 Conference USA regular season and 2009 Greenville Regional titles before advancing to their third NCAA Super Regional on the way to a 46-20 overall record.

(Press Release)