FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
The Alabama State University baseball team released its 2012 baseball schedule, a 54-game regular season slate which includes 22 home contests at the Wheeler-Watkins Baseball Complex as the program will play its first full season on campus since 1996.
Highlighting this year’s schedule are home-and-home games with Alabama-Birmingham, Georgia State, Mercer, Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State, and a home game against Troy. Alabama State will also travel to Auburn for a two-game series and to Oklahoma for a three-game series against the Sooners in Norman, Okla. The Hornets will open the season at home Saturday, Feb. 18 with a three-game series against Grambling State.
“Our schedule shows our commitment of playing the best Division I teams in the country,” first-year head baseball coach Mervyl Melendez said. “I am most proud of opening our season at home and bringing college baseball back to the ASU campus for a full season for the first time in many years.”
The three-game season opening series against Grambling State is part of a five-game homestand to open the season, as the Hornets will then host UAB and Kennesaw State. Alabama State will end the season’s opening month by playing three games in the Nicholls State Tournament, followed by a pair of games at Auburn.
The Hornets will open their 24-game Southwestern Athletic Conference schedule at home against arch-rival Alabama A&M March 3-4. Alabama State will then embark on its longest stretch of road games of the season, playing 10 consecutive games and 13 of 14 away from home. The Hornets will make a return trip to UAB before playing their first SWAC road series at Jackson State. Alabama State will then play two games at Florida A&M before a four-game series at Gardner-Webb.
The Hornets will return home March 20 for a contest against Georgia State before travelling for a weekend SWAC series at Mississippi Valley State. Alabama State will then host Troy in mid-week game before hosting defending SWAC Champion Alcorn State in a weekend series to end the month.
In April, Alabama State will travel to Georgia State and Kennesaw State, sandwiched around a weekend series at Alabama A&M. The Hornets will host Jackson State in a weekend series before traveling to face Oklahoma in a three-game series.
ASU will then play six of its next seven games at home, hosting Mercer in a pair of midweek games before hosting Mississippi Valley State in a three-game weekend series. The Hornets will open May with a home-and-home series on consecutive nights against Jacksonville State.
Alabama State will end the regular season with a three-game series at Alcorn State and a two-game series at Mercer. The 2012 SWAC Tournament is tentatively set for May 16-20 in Baton Rouge, La.
Full 2012 Alabama State Schedule (PDF)
