FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
ASHEVILLE, N.C. – Two tournaments in the first month of the season plus a home series with Temple highlight the 2013 UNC Asheville baseball schedule. Head Coach Tom Smith announced the 54-game schedule today.
The Bulldogs finished with a 25-30 overall record last season and came in fourth place in the Big South Conference despite being picked to finish in last place in the league’s preseason poll. This year the Big South will have 12 teams competing in baseball so the league has been divided into two divisions. Asheville is a member of the Southern Division, which includes defending league champion Coastal Carolina, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian College and Winthrop.
“We want to play different teams every year, and this year we’ve added 10 new teams to our schedule,” stated Smith. “We’re going to face some teams that will present big challenges to us, but these games are going to get us ready for Big South Conference play. Our league will be very good again this season.”
Asheville opens the 2013 season in Spartanburg, S.C., at the Wofford/USC Upstate Invitational (Feb. 15-17). The Bulldogs’ first game of the year will be against Kentucky followed by Georgetown and the co-host Terriers.
A trip to Charleston, S.C., and meetings with Virginia Commonwealth, Pittsburgh and tournament host The Citadel (March 1-3) precede Asheville’s three-game home-opening series Feb. 22-23 against Canisius at Greenwood Field that concludes with a noon doubleheader.
Other highlights of the 23-game home schedule include a March 8-10 series against Big East Conference member Temple, single on-campus games against East Tennessee State (March 13), USC Upstate (April 16) and Wofford (April 24) plus 3 p.m. contests at McCormick Field against Southern Conference rivals Western Carolina (April 3) and Appalachian State (April 9).
The Bulldogs will visit the Catamounts on April 2 and the Mountaineers on March 26. The non-conference road schedule also features series against Georgia State (March 5-6) and Charlotte (April 5-7) and single games versus The Citadel (Feb. 26), USC-Upstate (March 20 and April 16), Wofford (April 10 and 24) and East Tennessee State (May 8).
Asheville begins conference play March 15-17 with a road series against new Big South member Longwood followed the next weekend (March 22-24) by three games against Campbell at Greenwood Field.
The remainder of the home conference schedule is comprised of series against Presbyterian (April 12-14), High Point (April 19-21) and Winthrop (May 16-18), the last of which concludes the regular season.
Rounding out the road conference schedule are series at Charleston Southern (March 29; March 30 doubleheader), Gardner-Webb (April 26-28) and Coastal Carolina (May 10-12).
The Big South Conference Tournament will be held May 23-27 at Lynchburg, Va., on the Liberty campus. The top two teams in each division will advance to the double-elimination event along with the next six teams ranked by league winning percentage regardless of division.
