FROM PRESS RELEASE
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Twenty-one home games at Warren E. Steller Field, including three against four-time defending Mid-American Conference champion and NCAA participant Kent State, highlight the 2008 Bowling Green State University baseball schedule announced Thursday by head coach Danny Schmitz. The BG schedule, which will begin on Feb. 22 and run through the 17th of May, will include 58 total regular season games with 23 of those contests coming against teams that sported winning records in 2007, including four tilts with NCAA qualifiers.
Aside from their three home games against the Golden Flashes, the Falcons will visit two-time defending Big Ten champion and Super Regional qualifier, Michigan, in a non-conference battle on Tues., Mar. 25 at U of M’s Ray Fisher Stadium.
“We’re very excited to announce this schedule and start another season of baseball,” said Schmitz, now entering his 18th season as the Falcons’ skipper. “It’ll be a very competitive schedule again and one that’ll feature some games against some very talented teams and we look forward to getting it underway in February.”
The Falcons will get things underway on Feb. 22 when they head to Bowling Green, Ky. to take on Western Kentucky. The Falcons and Hilltoppers will be meeting for just the fifth-time on opening day and for the first time since the Falcons’ 2002 MAC championship season. The two squads will play a three-game set that’ll run thru Feb. 24, before the Falcons will head to Dayton, Ohio on the 26th to do battle with the Dayton Flyers of the Atlantic 10.
For the fourth-straight season then, BG will head to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for their annual Spring Break trip that’ll run from Mar. 1-8. There they will face-off with Western Michigan, Villanova, Fairfield, Florida Gulf Coast University, Vermont and Northeastern, who’ll they’ll meet three times.
After non-conference trips to Cincinnati (Mar. 12), Murray State (Mar. 15-16) and Wright State (Mar. 18), BG will open their home portion of the schedule against Cleveland State on Mar. 19 at Stellar Field. The home opener against the Vikings will be followed by the 2008 MAC season-opening series at Western Michigan on Mar. 21-23.
After their Mar. 25th bout with the Wolverines, the Falcons will return back home to Stellar Field for four-straight contests, beginning on Mar. 26 against the University of Findlay. That will be followed by the MAC home-opening series against Northern Illinois on Mar. 28-30.
April will then kick-off for BG with a non-conference trip to Youngstown State (Apr. 1), before a five-game home stand that will include games against Wright State (Apr. 2), Central Michigan (Apr. 4-6) and Dayton (Apr. 8).
Following trips to Cincinnati, Ohio to play Xavier (Apr. 9) and Muncie, Ind. to play a three-game MAC set at Ball State (Apr. 11-13), the Falcons will be back at Stellar Field on Apr. 15, when they battle Tiffin University. The following day will mark the one and only match up of the season between BG and their rivals from the north, the University of Toledo. The Falcons and Rockets will do battle on Apr. 16 from UT’s Scott Park.
BG will then welcome the Golden Flashes to town on Apr. 18-20, as part of another five-game home stand that will conclude with games against Albion College (Apr. 22) and Oakland University (Apr. 23). BG will end the month with a three-game conference series at Miami, before heading to Ohio University to start the month of May.
After a home-and-home set against Eastern Michigan (May 6-7), the Falcons will conclude their home schedule with three games against the University of Buffalo and singular game against Xavier on May 13. A three-game series at the University of Akron will then bring the regular season to a close.
The MAC Tournament is scheduled for May 21-24 at a location yet to be determined, while this year’s College World Series will take place June 14-24/25 for the 59th-straight season at Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium.
BG is coming off a 22-32 season that saw them finish 7-20 in the final MAC standings.
