UT-Arlington
FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
ARLINGTON, Texas- Ten games against 2008 NCAA Tournament teams, 26 home dates and a St. Patrick’s Day game at QuikTrip Park highlight the 2009 UT Arlington baseball schedule, which was released today by head coach Darin Thomas.
“We are excited about competing this spring,” Thomas said. “Our schedule, as usual, will be very challenging. We will need to be at our best every time we take the field.”
The Mavericks’ 55-game schedule features six weekend series at home, including the UT Arlington/Hilton Invitational on Feb. 20-23 at Clay Gould Ballpark, which opens the Mavericks season.
The Mavericks will play host to Arkansas State (Feb. 20), Texas State (Feb. 21) and Siena (Feb. 22-23) for four straight days before traveling to play Texas on Feb. 24 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field for the opening five days of the season.
UT Arlington’s schedule includes 14 opponents – who make up 28 total games – that won at least 30 games during the 2008 season.
A trip to Edinburg, Texas, is scheduled for the Mavericks’ final non-conference weekend on Feb. 27-March 1, where UT Arlington will play games at the UT-Pan American Tournament.
UT Arlington will host TCU (Mar. 3) and Iowa Wesleyan (Mar. 5) before Southland Conference action begins with the Mavericks traveling to defending SLC Tournament champion Sam Houston State (Mar. 6-8).
The Mavericks play home Southland Conference series against Northwestern State (Mar. 20-22), Southeastern Louisiana (Apr. 3-5), McNeese State (Apr. 10-12), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (May 1-3) and Texas State (May 14-16).
Following a road trip to San Antonio to take on defending SLC regular season champion UTSA (Mar. 13-15), UT Arlington will host Minnesota for a two-game series on Mar. 17-18.
The first game of the series will be on St. Patrick’s Day at QuikTrip Ballpark, which is home for the American Association of Professional Baseball league Grand Prairie AirHogs. QuikTrip Ballpark, a 5,445-seat, $20 million venue opened on May 16, 2008.
UT Arlington will make a total of six SLC road trips to Sam Houston State (Mar. 6-8), UTSA (Mar. 13-15), Nicholls (Mar. 27-29), Central Arkansas (Apr. 17-19), Stephen F. Austin (Apr. 24-26) and Lamar (May 8-10).
The Mavericks also play non-conference games against Louisiana-Monroe (Mar. 10 – Monroe), Texas A&M (Mar. 24 – College Station), Louisiana Tech (Mar. 25 – Clay Gould Ballpark), TCU (Apr. 1 – Fort Worth), Baylor (Apr. 14-15 – Waco – Clay Gould Ballpark), Oral Roberts (Apr. 21 – Tulsa), Oklahoma State (Apr. 28 – Stillwater) at Oklahoma (May 5 – Clay Gould Ballpark).
The Southland Conference Tournament will be held May 20-23, at the Double-A Corpus Christi Hooks’ home stadium, Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.
