FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
LOS ANGELES – The UCLA baseball team has released its 2010 schedule, which features 23 games against teams that advanced to the 2009 NCAA Tournament, as announced by sixth-year head coach John Savage. UCLA will open the season at home versus Southern University in the MLB Urban Invitational on Friday, Feb. 19.
UCLA’s 56-game regular-season schedule includes at least 32 home contests and 24 games played away from Steele Field at Jackie Robinson Stadium. The Bruins’ home slate is lined by non-conference weekend series versus Nebraska (March 5-7), Oral Roberts (March 19-21) and Cal Poly (March 25-27).
"We’re looking forward to playing another challenging schedule next spring," Savage said.
"Those familiar with our program know that we take a lot of pride in playing the nation’s best teams. Between our nine Pac-10 series and our five non-conference weekends, we are very excited about this schedule."
UCLA opens the season playing Southern, Bethune-Cookman and Cal State Northridge in the third annual MLB Urban Invitational (Feb. 19-21). The contest versus Bethune-Cookman (Feb. 20) will be played at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., and will be broadcast live on either ESPN or MLB Network. The weekend finale versus Cal State Northridge (Feb. 21) will be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The following weekend, the Bruins will face Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State and USC in the Adidas-Nike Classic (Feb. 26-28). UCLA will face crosstown rival USC in the weekend finale that Sunday at Dodger Stadium (2 p.m.). Friday’s game versus Vanderbilt will be played at Jackie Robinson Stadium. UCLA’s game against Oklahoma State on Saturday will take place in Los Angeles at a venue to be determined.
The Bruins will play in the 2010 Whataburger College Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas (March 12-14). Games that weekend against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Mississippi State and Oklahoma will take place at Whataburger Field, home to minor league baseball’s Corpus Christi Hooks (Houston Astros’ double-A affiliate).
UCLA opens Pac-10 play against Stanford at Jackie Robinson Stadium (April 1-3). The Bruins’ other four home conference series include Oregon (April 16-18), Arizona State (April 30-May 2), USC (May 14-16) and the regular-season finale versus Washington State (May 28-30).
The Bruins will play four Pac-10 opponents on the road in 2010 – Oregon State (April 9-11), Arizona (April 23-25), Washington (May 7-9) and California (May 21-23).
UCLA’s midweek contests include two games each against Long Beach State, UC Riverside, Pepperdine and Cal State Fullerton. The Bruins will also play one midweek game against UC Santa Barbara.
The Bruins’ last four schedules have been ranked among the top three-most difficult in the country, as ranked by Boyd’s World (strength of schedule ranking service). UCLA’s schedule was ranked No. 1 in 2006, No. 2 in 2007 and No. 3 in 2008 and 2009.
