FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
FAYETTEVILLE – The University of Arkansas baseball team will play 24 games against 10 teams that advanced to post season play a year ago and 33 games at Baum Stadium during the 2011 season as revealed by the Razorbacks’ schedule announced by head coach Dave Van Horn on Tuesday.
Arkansas’ season begins on Friday, February 18, at Baum Stadium with a three-game series with Delaware State and runs for the next 14 weeks. The Ole Miss Rebels end Arkansas’ regular season in Fayetteville, May 19-21, before the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Tournaments begin in late May and early June, respectively.
“I am really looking forward to this season,” Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said. “This schedule is challenging in terms of opponents as well as from a scheduling aspect with a young team. We have a couple of weeks where we have five games in five days and eight games in nine days and that will be a tough stretch for our pitching staff. We have tremendous fan support and our 33 home games this year should allow the Razorback Nation to see great baseball throughout the season.”
The Razorbacks’ regular season schedule opens with 11 straight games at Baum Stadium against Delaware State, Utah, McNeese State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee. McNeese State is the only weekday series in the lineup on March 1-2 and each of the 11 contests are scheduled for afternoon starts.
The Razorbacks’ first road trip takes them to San Diego, Calif., to play a four-game series with San Diego State, March 10-13. The trip begins a tough stretch of games where Arkansas plays nine of 11 games away from Baum Stadium. Following the San Diego State series, the Razorbacks return to Baum Stadium to play Kansas for one game on March 15, before opening Southeastern Conference play at Auburn, March 18-20.
After the Auburn series, the Razorbacks remain on the road to play a home-and-home series with Memphis, in two of the nicest minor league baseball stadiums in the country. The first game of the series will be played in North Little Rock’s Dickey Stephens Park, March 22 at 6:30 p.m. followed by a game in Memphis’ AutoZone Park on March 23.
The SEC schedule continues on March 25 at Baum Stadium when the Razorbacks play Vanderbilt before hosting Oklahoma on March 29.
April begins with Arkansas taking on Alabama in Tuscaloosa, April 1-3, before the Hogs play seven of their next eight games at Baum Stadium. Texas State on April 6 is the opener of the stretch and leads right into LSU at Baum Stadium, April 8-10. A day trip to Springfield, Mo., on April 12 to take on Missouri State breaks up the home stand which concludes with Mississippi State, April 15-17.
The month of April concludes with seven of eight games on the road as the Razorbacks travel to Tulsa, Okla., to take on Oral Roberts, April 19, and Kentucky, April 22-24. St. Louis comes to Baum Stadium on April 26 before Arkansas concludes the month at Georgia, April 29-May 1.
The remainder of Arkansas’ schedule is favorable as four of the next five series are played at Baum Stadium. Southeast Missouri State comes to Fayetteville, May 3-4, and begins a stretch of five games in five days for the Razorbacks at home as Arkansas takes part in the inaugural season of ESPN Thursday Night College Baseball on May 5 against Florida. The Florida series continues May 6-7. Arkansas goes on the road to face the defending National Champion South Carolina Gamecocks, May 13-15 before ending the season with a single game against Tennessee-Martin on May 17 and the season finale with Ole Miss, May 19-21.
The Southeastern Conference Tournament will once again be held in Hoover, Ala., May 25-29 before NCAA selections are announced and tournament play begins the first weekend of June.
