FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Bill Kernen leads CSUB in 2009
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The inaugural schedule for the CSUB baseball team, released Monday, features an array of opponents, none bigger than the defending NCAA Division I National Champions, and Valley rival, Fresno State, whom the Roadrunners will take on during a five-game series in early April. Perhaps the most anticipated series of the season will take place Apr. 3-8 with the first three games being played in Fresno and the final two match-ups taking place in Bakersfield on Apr. 7 and 8.
The Roadrunners’ first official contests of the opening season will take place Feb. 20-21, 2009, in a three-game series on the CSUB campus against Atlantic 10 member St. Louis University. The Billikens will be the first of nine teams to visit Bakersfield during the 2009 season that features 19 home contests on its 51-game schedule.
“We tried to design a schedule as nationally competitive and difficult as possible,” said CSUB Head Coach Bill Kernen. “We want this first team to develop in the environment that they’ll need to succeed in. Even if we’re not successful in terms of wins and losses (this year), we want them to understand that this is what the deep end of the pool is like to be in.”
Following the series against St. Louis, Bakersfield will host Big West member UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 22, the University of Utah in a four-game series from Feb. 27-Mar. 1 and a two-game homestand against Cal Poly is scheduled for Mar. 22-23.
In all, the ‘Runners will face six of the nine Big West member institutions including UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly, UC Riverside, Cal State Northridge, Pacific and UC Davis.
The ‘Runners will hit the road to take on San Jose State on Mar. 27-29, while a three-game series at the University of Nevada is scheduled for Apr. 24-26 in Reno. The Wolfpack advanced to the title game of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Championship game in 2008, falling to Fresno State.
The month of May features a single game at Pac-10 member UCLA, which was recently listed as having the seventh-best recruiting class in the nation, according to Baseball America, followed by a visit to Lincoln, Neb., for a three-game series against University of Nebraska, and a three-game series in Columbia, Mo., for three games against University of Missouri. Both Big 12 schools advanced to the NCAA Lincoln Regional Tournament in 2008.
CSUB’s final home game, on May 19, will feature a match-up against Cal State Northridge. The ‘Runners then close out the season on May 22-24 in a three-game series at the University of the Pacific in Stockton.
