BOONE, N.C. — Defending Southern Conference champion Appalachian State University baseball unveiled its 2013 schedule on Wednesday. The 2013 slate includes 26 home games at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium, where Appalachian State was 24-2 last season and is 84-26-1 since 2009.
Appalachian State opens the season Feb. 15-17 with a three-game series at NC State, which is the first of 10 games that Appalachian is set to play against teams that, like the Mountaineers, advanced to NCAA postseason play in 2012.
The day after wrapping up the season-opening series at NC State, Appalachian opens the home portion of its slate versus Canisius on President’s Day (Monday, Feb. 18) at 3 p.m. The following weekend (Feb. 23-24), the Mountaineers host Butler for a three-game set at Smith Stadium.
After the short four-game homestand, Appalachian State plays 14 of its next 17 games on the road, including its first three Southern Conference series of the season at Davidson (March 1-3), Furman (March 8-10) and 2012 conference co-champion College of Charleston (March 22-24). Also included in the stretch of 14-of-17 on the road is a two-game mid-week series at traditional Southeastern Conference power Georgia (March 12-13), which precedes the only home dates of the grueling stretch, a three-game series versus Cornell (March 16-17).
The schedule evens out for Appalachian in the second half of the season, as it plays five of its final seven SoCon series at home: versus Wofford (March 29-31), Georgia Southern (April 5-7), 2012 SoCon Tournament champion Samford (April 26-28), Elon (May 3-5) and Western Carolina (May 16-17). In fact, after March 24, the Mountaineers only play three series on the road: at UNCG (April 12-14, The Citadel (April 19-21) and a long non-conference trip to Gonzaga (May 11-12).
The rest of the slate is rounded out by non-conference home-and-home series versus traditional mid-week foes ETSU, High Point, North Carolina A&T and UNC Asheville, road dates at Eastern Kentucky and North Carolina and a contest versus Campbell at a neutral site yet to be determined.
The Southern Conference Baseball Championship is set for May 22-26 at Fluor Field in Greenville, S.C.
Under first-year head coach Billy Jones, Appalachian State returns five position starters and three starting pitchers from last year’s squad, which won a school-record 41 games, claimed its first SoCon title since 1987 and came within three victories of advancing to the College World Series for the first time in program history.
Full 2013 Appalachian State Schedule
