FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
SAN ANTONIO — UTSA head baseball coach Sherman Corbett announced Monday the Roadrunners’ 2009 schedule. Highlighted by six opponents that qualified for the 2008 NCAA Tournament (Dallas Baptist, Houston, Oral Roberts, Rice, Sam Houston State and Texas A&M) and a full 33-game slate of Southland Conference action, the two-time defending SLC Regular Season Champions will play a total of 55 contests this spring.
“With the conference increasing the schedule to 33 games this year, it leaves us only two non-conference series this spring,” Corbett said. “I believe both series will be very competitive and prepare us for the rigorous Southland Conference schedule. Unfortunately, we do not have the marquee non-conference game in San Antonio this season, but I like that we start and end our conference season at Roadrunner Field.”
UTSA’s 25-game home schedule includes four contests at Wolff Stadium, the home of the San Diego Padres’ Double A affiliate San Antonio Missions. The Roadrunners’ first four games of the year will be played at Wolff, which has been a fixture on the schedule for more than a decade. UTSA has won 18 of its last 22 tilts at the 15-year-old facility.
The Roadrunners kick off the campaign with a four-game series against San Francisco from Feb. 20-22 before embarking on a five-contest road trip.
UTSA heads south for a Feb. 24 matchup with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a non-conference game at Whataburger Field, the home of the Houston Astros’ Double A affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks and site of this year’s SLC Tournament.
The Roadrunners then travel to Tulsa, Okla., for a three-game set at 2008 NCAA Tournament participant Oral Roberts (Feb. 27-March 1). The trip concludes on March 4 against another national tournament qualifier, Houston.
UTSA begins the expanded 33-game Southland Conference slate with a three-game home series against Southeastern Louisiana (March 6-8). The Roadrunners also welcome Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (March 27-29), Northwestern State (April 9-11), Lamar (April 17-19), I-35 rival Texas State (May 2-3) and Central Arkansas (May 14-16) to the Bird Bath for conference contests this spring.
Following a March 10 tilt against Illinois State, UTSA plays its first league road series at UT Arlington (March 13-15), which is the beginning of a season-long eight-game road trip. Other league series away from the Alamo City include two-time defending SLC Tournament Champion Sam Houston State (March 20-22), Stephen F. Austin (April 3-5), Nicholls (April 24-26), Texas State (May 1) and McNeese State (May 8-10).
The Birds play two games at Kansas State from March 17-18 and other non-conference tilts include a home-and-home series with Texas-Pan American (March 24 at Roadrunner Field/April 21 in Edinburg), a March 31 road contest at Texas A&M, two games against Texas Tech (April 7-8), a home-and-home set with Dallas Baptist (April 13 at Roadrunner Field/May 12 in Dallas), a home date with Houston (April 1) and road tilts at Rice (April 15) and Baylor (April 28).
The SLC Tournament is scheduled for May 20-23 at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi. The circuit’s top two division finishers and the next four teams with the best winning percentage in SLC regular-season play will qualify for the four-day tournament to decide who earns the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
2009 UTSA Roadrunners Baseball Schedule
