LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Louisville baseball program released its 2017 schedule on Thursday and the slate includes 27 of 56 games against NCAA Regional qualifiers from last season, including 14 of those at home inside Jim Patterson Stadium.
Following their fourth straight NCAA Super Regional season, the Cardinals will play a 34-game home schedule in 2017, highlighted by visits from 2016 NCAA Regional foes Xavier, Boston College, Wake Forest, Duke, Vanderbilt and Florida State. The Cardinals’ road challenges include games at NC State, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Clemson, all of which advanced to the postseason last year, as well as visits to Notre Dame, Cincinnati, Kentucky and Indiana.
In addition to the regular season schedule, the 2017 ACC Baseball Championship will also be played in the Cardinals’ backyard as Louisville Slugger Field will host the event for the first time on May 23-28. Louisville Slugger Field boasts a seating capacity of 13,131 and is home to the Louisville Bats, the Triple-A affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.
For the second time in three seasons, Louisville will open its season at Bright House Field in Clearwater, Florida for a trio of neutral site games in the Sunshine State. The Cardinals will face 2016 NCAA qualifier Alabama State (Feb. 17, 3 p.m.), Big Ten foe Maryland (Feb. 18, 6 p.m.) and Mid-American Conference opponent Ball State (Feb. 19, 1 p.m.) at the spring training home for the Philadelphia Phillies.
The home schedule begins on Feb. 22 at 3 p.m., when Eastern Kentucky opens an eight-game homestand for Louisville. The stand will also feature a three-game series against first-time opponent Nebraska-Omaha (Feb. 24-26), a mid-week game against Morehead State (March 1) and a weekend set versus Eastern Michigan (March 3-5). Following a road game at Eastern Kentucky (March 7), the Cardinals begin another eight-game stretch at home with a contest against Fort Wayne (March 8) before opening their 30-game ACC schedule with a series against Pittsburgh on March 10-12 at Patterson Stadium.
Louisville will stay home during Spring Break with a midweek game against Xavier (March 15) and a three-game series against Boston College (March 17-19), an NCAA Super Regional qualifier last season. The Cardinals then begin a stretch of seven of eight games away from home with a contest at Cincinnati (March 21) and a weekend visit to NC State. Following a home game against Western Kentucky (March 28), Louisville returns to the road for a trio of games at Virginia (March 31-April 2).
The Cardinals return to the friendly confines of Patterson Stadium on April 4 for the first of two midweek games against Kentucky before also hosting Wake Forest (April 7-9) and Purdue (April 11). Following road trips to Georgia Tech (April 13-15) and Kentucky (April 18), Louisville kicks off its third and final eight-game homestand with a weekend series against Duke (April 21-23). The home stretch also includes Northern Kentucky (April 26), Toledo (April 28-30) and Miami (Ohio) on May 3 to begin the last month of the regular season.
The final stretch of the season will commence with a three-game set at Notre Dame (May 5-7) before hosting Vanderbilt in the annual Battle of the Barrel on May 9. Road challenges at Clemson (May 12-14) and Indiana (May 16) will precede the last weekend series of the regular season when Florida State travels to Patterson Stadium on May 18-20.
The 2017 NCAA Championship is scheduled to begin on June 2 with regional play, while the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., is slated from June 17-27/28 at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha.
2017 Louisville Baseball Schedule (PDF)
