Senior Rand Smith and the Mountaineers play 25 games in the friendly confines of Smith Stadium next spring.
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Twenty-five games at recently completed Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium highlight Appalachian State University’s 2009 baseball schedule, head coach Chris Pollard announced on Wednesday.
Appalachian opens the ‘09 campaign Feb. 20-22 when it hosts a three-game series versus Jacksonville State at McNair Field in Forest City, N.C. McNair Field, which opened just this past summer, is home to the Coastal Plain League’s Forest City Owls and has been lauded as one of the state’s top baseball stadiums at any level of competition.
The very next weekend (Feb. 27-March 1), ASU makes its earliest debut in Boone in recent memory when it welcomes Southern Conference-rival Elon for a critical early-season conference series at Smith Stadium. Elon claimed the SoCon’s regular-season and tournament titles a season ago en route to its second NCAA Regional appearance in three years, but it was the Mountaineers that got the best of the season series between the two clubs, taking 2-of-3 games from the Phoenix at Elon’s Latham Park.
In addition to the conference-opening set versus Elon, the Mountaineers also host The Citadel (March 13-15), Georgia Southern (March 20-22), Samford (April 10-12) and Wofford (April 24-26) in league series at Smith Stadium. The Apps travel to Western Carolina (March 6-8), Davidson (March 27-29), Furman (April 3-5), College of Charleston (April 17-19) and UNC Greensboro (May 8-10) for conference road series.
Besides the season-opening series with Jacksonville State in Forest City, Appalachian hosts Longwood for a late-season three-game set at Smith Stadium (May 14-15) and has mid-week non-conference home-and-home series slated against local rivals East Tennessee State, Gardner-Webb, High Point, North Carolina A&T, UNC Asheville, Radford and Wake Forest. ASU visits 2008 College World Series participant North Carolina for a two-game series (March 10-11) and travels for single games at Southeastern Conference power Tennessee (April 7) and NC State (May 12), which advanced to an NCAA Super Regional last season.
The 2009 SoCon Tournament is set for May 20-24 at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.
Fans can catch their first glimpse of the 2009 Mountaineers when the squad holds its annual Fall World Series, Oct. 24-26 at Smith Stadium. Details on the Fall Series and ‘09 season tickets will be available later this fall at GoASU.com.
