FROM PRESS RELEASE
NEW HAVEN, Conn.–The 2008 Yale baseball schedule was announced today. The 46-game slate includes 20 conference games and 15 home contests at Yale Field.
The season gets underway with a three-game series at George Washington on March 1-2. The Bulldogs and Colonials will square off in a doubleheader on March 1, then a single game the following day.
Yale’s annual Spring Break trip sees the team playing 15 games in a 15-day span. The swing starts in Davidson, N.C., with a doubleheader against Appalachian State on March 8. Following a two-game set with Davidson, the Bulldogs head to Columbia, S.C., for a two-game series at South Carolina. The Gamecocks earned a No. 1 seed in last year’s NCAA Tournament and are ranked No. 2 in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll.
“We have a Spring Break unlike anyone else’s,” Mazzutto Family Head Coach John Stuper said. “Our guys have 16 days with no classes where they can concentrate solely on baseball. We always look forward to this trip, as it’s important preparation for the Ivy League season.”
After a day off, Yale plays three games at Wofford and a single contest at Gardner-Webb before opening a two-game set with Presbyterian, a team playing a full Division I schedule for the first time. The Bulldogs have another off day before ending the trip in Radford, Va., for a three-game series with Radford. The teams square off in a doubleheader on March 21 and a single contest on March 22.
“All of these teams are good, especially South Carolina,” Stuper said. “Playing this many games requires pitching depth, and I think we have it. Each guy will get some time on the mound to show what he can do.”
Yale returns to the Nutmeg State for a midweek matchup at Connecticut on March 26 before embarking on the always challenging Ivy League slate with back-to-back doubleheaders at Penn (March 29) and Columbia (March 30). Penn won the Gehrig Division last season and lost to Brown in the Ivy League championship series.
After visiting local rival Quinnipiac, the team that beat the Bulldogs to win the Fall City Series, Yale finally plays its home opener, a doubleheader with Ivy rival Princeton on April 5. That twinbill starts a 12-game homestand that includes a conference doubleheader against Cornell on April 6 and non-conference doubleheaders with Sacred Heart (April 9) and Fairfield (April 16). The Bulldogs open Rolfe Division play by hosting Harvard in consecutive doubleheaders on April 12-13.
Rolfe Division action continues at Dartmouth on April 19-20 before Yale returns home for a single matchup with Hartford on April 23. As usual, the season ends with a home-and-home series against defending Ivy League champion Brown. The Bulldogs and Bears square off in Providence for a doubleheader on April 26, then play two games in New Haven to conclude the regular season on April 27. The best-of-three Ivy League championship series is scheduled for May 3-4 at the division champion with the best conference record.
The Bulldogs return 19 letterwinners and eight starters from last season’s team that went 16-27 overall and finished third in the Red Rolfe Division with an 8-12 Ivy League mark.
