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MOBILE, Ala. - University of South Alabama baseball head coach Steve Kittrell announced the Jags’ 2010 regular season schedule Wednesday afternoon. The 56-game slate features 32 home games, including the 25th annual South Alabama Classic.

USA head coach Steve Kittrell

“I think it’s a very competitive non-conference schedule, and it should prepare us for Sun Belt Conference play, which is getting better every year,” Kittrell said. “We’re excited about the challenges ahead and look forward to starting practice on Jan. 29.”

Kittrell’s club starts the season with 14 of its first 16 games at home. USA opens with a doubleheader against Jackson State (Feb. 19), then the Jags hit the road to take on Alabama the next day before returning home for a Sunday rematch with the Crimson Tide to round out the opening weekend.

Complete 2010 South Alabama Schedule

USA hosts the South Alabama Classic the following weekend. The tournament field includes another team with a great baseball history – Wichita State – along with North Florida and Eastern Michigan. Wichita State played in the 2002 Classic, while North Florida and Eastern Michigan will be visiting Stanky Field for the first time.

Following the tournament, the Jags take on a pair of storied programs in consecutive midweek games. USA travels to Mississippi State (March 2), then gets a visit from Tulane the following day. South Alabama’s last nonconference series is a four-game set with Siena (March 5-7).

After a pair of midweek games at home against Tennessee Tech, the Jags open Sun Belt Conference play with a three-game series at Arkansas-Little Rock. The Jags took two of three from the Trojans a season ago. The Jags follow that series with a pair of midweek games at Memphis, then return to Stanky Field for the conference home opener when they host longtime rival Louisiana-Lafayette (March 19-21).

After four more road games, including a series at Middle Tennessee, the Jags return for a five-game homestand when they host Southern Miss (March 30), New Orleans (April 2-4) and Southeastern Louisiana (April 6).

The Jags hit the road for Western Kentucky the following weekend (April 9-11), but not before making a stop along the way to take on Auburn (April 7). After the three-game set with the Hilltoppers, USA heads back home for games against Nicholls State (April 13) and Louisiana-Monroe (April 16-18). The Jags took both games of a rain-shortened two-game set against the Warhawks last year.

Kittrell’s squad then travels back to Arkansas, this time to take on Arkansas State (April 23-25), and on the way back the Jags stop for games with Nicholls State (April 27) and Southern Miss (April 28), before closing with seven of the last 10 at home.

USA rounds out the regular season hosting Florida Atlantic (May 7-9), Auburn (May 11) and Troy (May 20-22), and going on the road to face Florida International (May 14-16).

The Jags’ game against Auburn will be their fifth game of the season against an opponent from the Southeastern Conference. USA went a perfect 4-0 in home games against teams from the SEC in 2009, including a win over No. 6 Ole Miss that gave Kittrell his 1,000th career win, and a win against No. 21 Alabama in front of a Stanky Field record crowd of 4,436.

The Sun Belt Conference Championship is scheduled for May 26-29 in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

(Release)

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SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The USC Upstate baseball team has proven, even with the move to Division I, that it is not afraid of a challenge, and the 2010 season will be no exception, as the Spartans will play 32 of its 56 games in 2010 against teams that finished 2009 with non-losing records, 21 against teams with 30 or more wins, 18 against teams with an RPI of better than 100 and seven against teams that competed in the NCAA Regionals, as head coach Matt Fincher announced the schedule on Monday.

USC Upstate Head Coach Matt Fincher

Upstate, celebrating its 25^th season of play in 2010, will not stray from the path that Fincher has laid out for the team in its move to the Atlantic Sun Conference and Division I play. Once again, the team will find itself challenged every step of the way, beginning with a game against Appalachian State, which went 33-21 and finished 83^rd in the RPI in 2009, on Feb. 20.

Complete 2010 USC Upstate Schedule (PDF)

The Spartans will have a few more advantages up its sleeves in their schedule during the 2010 season, thanks mainly to 30 games in the friendly confines of Harley Park and no non-conference mid-week games more than three hours from the Spartanburg campus, heading only as far south as Charleston and as far north as Knoxville, Tenn.

Upstate will also continue to develop rivalries with traditional regional foes and powers, like the Atlantic 10’s Charlotte (at Charlotte, March 31; at Harley Park, April 6), the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Clemson (at Clemson, April 21), the Southern Conference’s The Citadel (at Charleston, March 10; at Harley Park, May 12) and the Southeastern Conference’s South Carolina (April 20, Columbia), and Tennessee (March 23, Knoxville). Upstate will also keep rivalries with the Big South’s Presbyterian (Feb. 20, Harley Park; Feb. 21, Clinton; April 7, Clinton), UNC Asheville (March 30, Harley Park; April 14, Asheville) and Gardner-Webb (March 3, March 24, Harley Park), all within an hour’s drive of Spartanburg, and Charleston Southern (March 9, Charleston; March 16, Harley Park).

The team will also start a few other non-conference relationships, including home-and-home agreements with SoCon power the College of Charleston (April 13, Harley Park; May 11, Charleston) and 2009 NCAA Regional participant Georgia State (Feb. 23, Atlanta; Feb. 24, Harley Park).

Fincher has also worked to keep developing the working relationship with Wofford for the Courtyard by Marriott Classic, a co-operative classic run by the two schools. This season, the tournament will occur on the second weekend of the season, from Feb. 26-28, with five games occurring in three days at Harley Park and Wofford playing four games at Russell C. King Field. The Spartans will host Dayton, NJIT and Butler during the tournament.

A reduction in the number of conference games from 30 to 27 in the 2010 season will also allow Upstate to play three more games at home, as the Spartans host George Washington for a three-game non-conference set on March 6-7. The Spartans will also play a two-game homestand to end the season on May 18-19 against the Colonial Athletic Association’s William & Mary.

The conference season favors Upstate this year as a mix of tough match-ups will head to Harley Park, as both the 2009 A-Sun Tournament champions and the two-time defending A-Sun regular season champions will visit Upstate. FGCU, the regular-season champs will kick off Upstate’s A-Sun season on March 12-13 while 2009 A-Sun Tournament champs Jacksonville visit on April 2-3. Also on Upstate’s home slate in A-Sun series are Campbell (April 16-17) and Kennesaw State (May 14-15).

The Spartans will hit the road five times for three-game A-Sun series, heading to ETSU (March 19-20), Belmont (March 26-27), North Florida (April 10-11), Mercer (April 23-24) and Stetson (May 7-8).

The Spartans return four starters and six pitchers from a squad that went 17-37 overall in 2009. The Spartans will be led by senior catcher Jimmy Tanner (Fayetteville, Ga./Starr’s Mill), who was an All-Star this summer in the Northwoods League, and senior Matt Branham (Columbia, S.C./Spring Valley), who went struck out a school-record 82 batters in 82 innings before being drafted in the 47th round of the MLB draft by the Houston Astros in June.

(Release)

UA Will Play 32 Games Against SEC Yeams And 22 Games Vs. 2009 NCAA Teams

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama announced its 2010 college baseball schedule on Monday, which includes 32 games against Southeastern Conference teams and 22 games with teams that played in last year’s NCAA Tournament.

The list of 2009 NCAA Regional qualifiers includes Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Minnesota, Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt.  Of those eight teams, four played in NCAA Super Regionals and two advanced to the College World Series.

Alabama’s non-conference series includes games against South Alabama, Illinois-Chicago, College of Charleston, Stony Brook and Minnesota.

First Year Alabama Skipper Mitch Gaspard

“I think the schedule sets up pretty well and that will be similar to the schedules we would like to play in the future,” first-year Alabama head coach Mitch Gaspard said  “We would like to play one non-conference series with an NCAA Regional-type team each year.  I would like for that to be regionalized, where it is a team that would draw some interest from our fans and when we go there it would draw some interest. So I think in the future we want to have one kind of marquee weekend before we hit conference play that puts us in an atmosphere, whether it be at home or on the road, that would be similar to an SEC weekend.”

In addition to its 10-week SEC regular-season schedule, Alabama will play two non-conference games with Georgia and Auburn in 2010. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs, who do not play a league game in the regular season for the first time since 1994, will meet on Wednesday, March 3 at Regions Park in Hoover.  Alabama and Auburn will meet in the second annual Capital City Classic on Tuesday, March 9 at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery.

“I think the schedule is really good this year,” Gaspard added. “Minnesota has been really good.  They’ve been in a regional almost every year.  They are one of the better Big 10 teams out there.  It gives you some different flavor bringing some different folks in and the name has a lot to do with it so there is some excitement among our players and fans when you bring in a Big 10 school or someone from out of our region that traditionally plays good baseball. It’s a different look and a different style.

“That’s something that we want to continue to do, along with playing the teams in the state. It’s always important to play those people here and on the road.  When you put a schedule together, you want to put it together where it will continue to help you improve throughout the season.”

The Crimson Tide will also face Michigan State in a midweek game in Tuscaloosa and in-state foes Jacksonville State, Samford and UAB.

“I think early on in the season some of those marquee Tuesday and Wednesday games are important.  It gives you an opportunity to play some folks you would not otherwise play that you may match up with in a regional,” Gaspard said.

“I want to look at teams that play different styles, so you become comfortable with two or three different styles of play in your opponents, so when you run into a team that plays the short game, at least you’ve prepared for that for a weekend.  You may run into a base-to-base, power or power-pitching team, whatever it may be, and try to match up the best you can.  Normally the style and philosophy of the head coach does not change a lot, so you try to play some folks that will make you change a little bit as far as the style of play, where you can make some adjustments as the season goes along.”

Alabama will play SEC home series’ with Vanderbilt, Auburn, Mississippi State, Florida and Mississippi in 2010, while traveling to Arkansas, Kentucky, LSU, South Carolina and Tennessee.