FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
Nashville, Tenn. – Coming off the school’s first-ever College World Series appearance last season the Vanderbilt Commodores have a challenging schedule for 2012.
The Dores open the season at Stanford on February 17-19 against a Cardinal team that is expected to start the year highly ranked. Hawkins Field opens another season on February 22 with the Commodores hosting Oakland in the first of a string of 14 consecutive games in Nashville, including 13 at The Hawk. Vanderbilt will play another Pac-12 team when Oregon visits on the first home weekend (Feb. 24-26) of the year. It will mark the first time the Dores and the Ducks have squared off on the diamond. The next weekend, VU hosts Rhode Island in another first-ever match-up. San Diego visits Hawkins Field for the final three-game, non-conference series of the year. Vanderbilt swept the Toreros in San Diego last season to start the year.
The Commodores open Southeastern Conference play in Gainesville against the Gators (March 16-18) before returning home to host Evansville in a midweek match-up and welcome Georgia to West End for the weekend (March 23-25). Two-time defending national champion South Carolina visits Nashville March 30 – April 1. The following weekend takes the Dores to Starkville, Miss. to take on Mississippi State (April 6-8). Cross-town rival Belmont plays at Hawkins Field in the second of two games against the Commodores on April 11. Auburn comes calling April 13-15 before the Commodores travel to Alabama to take on the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa April 20-22. The Kentucky Wildcats visit Nashville April 27-29. Vanderbilt then travels back-to-back weekends going to Tennessee (May 4-6) and to LSU (May 11-13). The Commodores wrap up the regular season at home against Ole Miss. The Rebels and Dores have not played since 2009.
“We are playing a very ambitious and challenging schedule that will test our team throughout the year,” Head Coach Tim Corbin said. “We open up on the road for both regular season and SEC play with possibly the nation’s top 1 or 2 teams in Stanford and Florida. We are also fortunate to bring in Oregon and San Diego for home series at Hawkins Field at the beginning of the year. We will face seven teams that made the post-season a year ago, including four teams that made it to Super Regionals. We are excited for the challenge this schedule brings.”
Vanderbilt continues fall practice this week and will host the Black & Gold Series October 13-14, 16. Game time for Thursday and Friday will be 6 p.m. with Sunday’s finale at 1 p.m. at Hawkins Field. The following weekend (Oct. 23-24) the Commodores host Cal State Fullerton in the DeMarini Fall Classic. The Dores and Titans will play both games at 11 a.m.
