FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
WACO, Texas – Baylor’s 56-game 2012 baseball schedule features 28 games against teams that competed in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, highlighted by a three-game non-conference series at UCLA. Head coach Steve Smith, who is in his 18th season with the Bears, announced the schedule Tuesday.
The Bears will play 34 games at Baylor Ballpark and 21 games on the road. Baylor also plays a neutral-site game against Texas State at The Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, on Feb. 22.
Baylor opens the season by playing eight games in a 10-day stretch, all of which are against 2011 NCAA Tournament teams. The Bears host Oral Roberts (Feb. 17-19) and TCU (Feb. 21), then take on Texas State in Round Rock (Feb. 22) before traveling to Los Angeles for a three-game set against UCLA (Feb. 24-26).
The last time Baylor played UCLA, Kendal Volz out-dueled future No. 1 overall MLB Draft Pick Gerrit Cole, as the Bears knocked off the Bruins 5-1 in the 2009 Houston College Classic. Baylor also turned its only triple play since 1996 in that game.
The Bears also host UC Irvine and Lamar for two games apiece in the QTI Baylor Classic (March 2-4). Baylor then travels to Fort Worth for a road game against TCU (March 6), and returns home to host Michigan State (March 7) and Memphis (March 9-11).
After a midweek road game at UT Arlington (March 13), Baylor returns home for its first of three consecutive Big 12 Conference series at Baylor Ballpark. The Bears open conference play by hosting Texas Tech (March 16-18), Kansas (March 3-25) and Oklahoma State (March 30-April 1).
In between those series, the Bears have midweek road games at Sam Houston State (March 20) and at Houston (March 27). All told, Baylor plays seven of its 17 midweek games away from Baylor Ballpark.
Baylor then travels for two consecutive conference road series, heading to Missouri for a Thursday-Saturday series over Easter weekend (April 5-7) and traveling to Kansas State (April 13-15).
The Bears also have two straight weeks with consecutive midweek home games against the same opponent, taking on Louisiana-Monroe (April 10-11) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (April 17-18). Baylor then takes on Texas A&M in the final Big 12 edition of the Battle of the Brazos, with the opener in College Station (April 20) and the final two games in Waco (April 21-22).
The Bears host New Mexico State for a pair of games the following weekend (April 27-28) before wrapping up Big 12 play with five of their final six conference games on the road. Baylor travels to Oklahoma (May 11-13) and hosts Texas for the first game of the series (May 17) before concluding the series in Austin (May 18-19).
Baylor’s annual Burgers on the Berm event, hosted by the Heart of the Order, is Friday at 6 p.m. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated and all proceeds go directly to the Baylor Baseball Diamond Girls. The Bears return 20 letterwinners from a squad that went 31-28 and finished as the runner-up in the NCAA Houston Regional.
