FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
BOONE, N.C. — Headlined by 27 games at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium and a three-game series with one of college baseball’s most storied programs, Appalachian State University baseball announced its 2011 schedule on Wednesday.
Besides the 27 home games — 18 of which are slated for weekends — the highlight of the 2011 schedule is a three-game series at the University of Miami, set for Feb. 24-26 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Fla. Appalachian’s only previous meeting with the 23-time College World Series participants and four-time national champions came in the 1973 NCAA District III playoffs in Starkville, Miss., a game that Miami (Fla.) won, 13-6, to end ASU’s first-ever NCAA postseason appearance.
For the third-straight year, ASU will open the season at McNair Field in Forest City, N.C., where the Apps will host Maryland-Eastern Shore Feb. 18-20 for a three-game series a week before the much-anticipated weekend in Miami.
It doesn’t get any easier for the Mountaineers after the three-game set in south Florida, as they open Southern Conference play the next weekend with a three-game series at defending regular-season and tournament champion The Citadel (March 4-6). ASU closes a three-week gauntlet with a home series against 2010 NCAA regional participant Elon (March 11-13).
Sandwiched in between the challenging SoCon series is the 2011 home opener versus LaSalle on Tuesday, March 8, which begins a two-game mid-week set with the Explorers.
In addition to Elon, SoCon foes Wofford (April 1-3), Samford (April 15-17), Western Carolina (May 7-9) and Georgia Southern (May 19-21), as well as well as the Ivy League’s Cornell (March 24-26), will visit Smith Stadium for weekend series. Along with The Citadel, the Mountaineers will travel to UNC Greensboro (March 18-20), Furman (April 8-10), Davidson (April 21-23) and College of Charleston (May 13-15) in SoCon play.
The slate also includes home-and-home mid-week contests with East Tennessee State, Gardner-Webb, High Point and North Carolina A&T, home dates with Presbyterian and UNC Asheville and road affairs at Radford and traditional national powers North Carolina and Tennessee. Appalachian and Wake Forest will renew their annual rivalry at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory on March 29.
The 2011 SoCon Tournament is set for May 25-29 at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C.
In all, 13 of the Mountaineers’ 56 regular-season games come against teams that advanced to postseason play in 2010.
Appalachian posted the second-most wins in program history in 2010, finishing with a 38-18-1 record.
