FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
Albany, N.Y. – Vice President and Director of Athletics Lee McElroy announced the 2010 University at Albany baseball schedule on Tuesday afternoon. The Great Danes, who returned to the America East Conference Championship last season after winning the league title in 2007, will compete in a tournament at Coastal Carolina and make a six-game trip to California to highlight the non-conference schedule. UAlbany will also play an America East Conference schedule against five league opponents.
UAlbany kicks off the season with a three-game series at UNC Greensboro on Feb. 26-28. The Great Danes will visit Coastal Carolina from March 5-7 to play in four games at the Caravelle Resort Tournament for the second straight season, where they will take on Pittsburgh, Toledo and Ball Sate. It is the first meeting between the Great Danes and all three teams.
The Great Danes will play four games at N.Y. Tech (March 12-14) and play three contests at St. John’s on March 19-21 before hosting the first home game of the season against Marist on March 23. The Great Danes will then hit the road for six games on the West Coast, playing a four-game series at Loyola Marymount (March 26-28) before playing single games against Cal State Northridge, Santa Clara and Sacramento State. UAlbany will visit Manhattan on April 7 before kicking off the conference slate.
UAlbany starts league play at Varsity Field on April 10-11 with the first America East series of the season, hosting Maine. The Great Danes will also welcome league opponents Hartford and Stony Brook to their home diamond, and will play conference foes UMBC and Binghamton on the road, while also visiting Hartford and Maine.
UAlbany will play a home-and-home series with Le Moyne, hosting the Dolphins on April 20 and visiting Syracuse on May 4. The Great Danes will also play at Marist (April 13), while Manhattan (April 28) will also visit Varsity Field in non-conference action.
UAlbany is led by senior outfielder Brendan Rowland, the team’s top returning hitter from last season. Despite losing seven pitchers to graduation last season, the Great Danes return all-conference second-team honorees Dave Kubiak and Zach Kraham to the mound. A junior right hander, Kubiak will pace the pitching rotation after finishing last season with a team-best 55 strikeouts, while sophomore righty Kraham posted a 5-2 record in his first season with the Great Danes, starting nine games. He became UAlbany’s second pitcher in as many seasons to earn all-rookie accolades, following Kubiak in 2008. Kraham has fanned 37 opposing batters this season in 46 innings, holding opponents to a staff-low .263 average.
