FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State baseball coach Claudell Clark released his team’s 2013 schedule on Friday. The 51-game slate includes 29 home games at Marty L. Miller Field, which will again host the MEAC Baseball Championship for a second straight season, and another exhibition game with the Norfolk Tides.
“We are very excited about the upcoming season, especially with 29 of our 51 games being at home,” Clark said. “We have a challenging non-conference slate of games. The first three weekends of non-conference contests will really help to prepare us for a challenging conference season.”
The Spartans play their first six games and 16 of their final 20 at home. The season gets underway with three-game weekend series with Navy (Feb. 15-17) and Rider (Feb. 22-24) before NSU takes to the road for the first part of its March slate. NSU plays in a three-team round-robin event March 2-3 at Savannah State. The event features SSU, NSU and Fairleigh Dickinson, with NSU playing both of those teams twice. The Spartans then face another team from the MEAC’s Southern Division, North Carolina Central in a mid-week game on March 6 before returning home to host Wagner for a three-game set (March 9-10).
After a mid-week contest at Longwood on March 13, the Spartans open MEAC Northern Division play by welcoming reigning divisional champion Delaware State for a three-game series March 16-17. That will be the first of three series between the Hornets and NSU, which finished as Northern Division runner-up behind DSU last season.
The remainder of the March schedule includes mid-week games at VMI (March 19) and home against William & Mary (March 27), as well as MEAC road series at UMES (March 23-24) and Coppin State (March 30-31).
The Spartans kick off their April slate with an exhibition game against the Norfolk Tides, Triple-A affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles, on April 2 at Harbor Park. This will mark the third exhibition game between the teams in the last four years and is NSU’s fourth straight year playing at Harbor Park. The Spartans faced ODU there last season.
NSU concludes its home-and-home arrangement with William & Mary at Plumeri Park in Williamsburg on April 10, then plays its next 13 games at home. The homestand includes MEAC series with UMES (April 13-14), Coppin State (April 20-21) and DSU (April 27-28), and mid-week matchups with Liberty (April 17), Virginia State (April 23), VMI (April 24) and Winston-Salem State (May 1).
The Spartans’ regular-season conference schedule concludes with a three-game series at Coppin State on May 4-5. The remainder of the non-conference slate wraps up with a home date with Longwood (May 8), a home-and-home with ODU (May 10-11) and a home game with Savannah State (May 12).
The MEAC Tournament runs May 15-19, with all games being played at Marty L. Miller Field.
Added Clark: “We feel like the favorable but challenging schedule will position us well to ultimately contend for our first MEAC title.”
