FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
PULLMAN, Wash. – The Washington State University baseball team is scheduled to play 23 games in 2011 against teams that participated in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship last season, Cougar Head Coach Donnie Marbut announced, Thursday.
Of the 23 games, 21 will take place in Pacific-10 Conference play and a dozen will be played at Bailey-Brayton Field. The Cougars will play Minnesota in Minneapolis (March 3 and 6) during the nonconference portion of their schedule. Washington State will play road conference series against California (March 25-27), Arizona State (April 15-17) and Oregon State (April 21-23). The Cougars will host Stanford (April 1-3), UCLA (April 8-10), Arizona (May 13-15) and Oregon (May 20-22).
“It should be another difficult and challenging schedule for us,” Marbut said. “Our conference is so strong. Eight teams in the NCAA Tournament last season is proof of that.”
WSU opens the season with a three-game series at Cal State Bakersfield (18-20) before opening its home slate with three games against UC Santa Barbara (Feb. 25-27).
The Cougars will play in Minneapolis’s Metrodome for a tournament, March 4-6 against Oklahoma State, South Alabama and Minnesota. A five-game homestand follows with a pair of games against Dallas Baptist (March 7-8) and a three-game set against Utah Valley (March 11-13). The Cougars’ final nonconference road series is a four-game battle with Fresno State (March 17-20).
Other nonconference games include Gonzaga at home (March 29 and April 12), at Gonzaga (April 5), BYU at Bailey-Brayton Field (April 25-26), UNLV in Pullman (May 7-9), Portland at home (May 17) and Washington in Pasco, Wash., (May 24).
Other conference series are home against Washington (April 29-May 1) and at USC (May 27-29). From April 25-May 22, the Cougars are scheduled to play 15-consecutive games at home, including nine Pac-10 games.
“Being at home that late in the season is a tremendous opportunity for our club,” Marbut said. “Having the Huskies and our traditional graduation weekend series in the middle of it makes it extra special.”
