BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The Indiana baseball program, entering its first season under head coach Chris Lemonis, announced its 2015 schedule Wednesday, highlighted by eight opponents that reached the NCAA Tournament last season and a Bart Kaufman Field-record 25 regular-season games.
Two of Indiana’s first five opponents competed in the 2014 NCAA Super Regionals (College of Charleston and Stanford), while three played (Xavier) in the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers will open the season out west, Feb. 13-15, at Stanford. The Cardinal ended IU’s 2014 season in the NCAA Regional in May.
The Hoosiers will play four games at the Snowbird Baseball Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla., during the first full weekend of March before hosting five games at Bart Kaufman Field the following week. After playing 20 regular-season games at home in 2013 and 21 in 2014, Indiana will host 25 in 2015, including eight against NCAA Tournament teams and two series vs. teams from The Sunshine State.
IU’s first home games of 2015 will take place on Tues., March 10 and Wed., March 11, vs. Northern Illinois before IU welcome’s Cal State Fullerton for the first weekend series of the season at Bart Kaufman Field. Indiana is 39-8 (.830) heading into the third year of the facility, where Hoosier fans have created one of the best homefield advantages in the country. A school-record average of 2,748 fans per game showed up in 2014 to watch the Hoosiers.
Indiana, 36-9 in conference play the last two seasons and winners of back-to-back Big Ten regular-season and tournament championships, opens league play at Penn State on March 20.
Lemonis, who spent the previous eight seasons at Louisville, faces his former team when the Cardinals visit on Tues., March 24. Assistant coach Kyle Cheesebrough also spent six years with the program, three as an assistant coach, two as a player and one as a student assistant.
Indiana’s longest homestand of seven games begins at the start of April, with a weekend series vs. Michigan, a mid-week tilt vs. Cincinnati and IU’s first contests against Rutgers as a member of the Big Ten. The Hoosiers’ first Big Ten games at home in 2015 will be against Michigan, who the Hoosiers are 6-1 against over the last two seasons.
The final month of the regular-season features IU’s first games vs. Maryland as a member of the Big Ten, a home series vs. Long Beach State, a mid-week contest vs. in-state rival Ball State and the regular-season finale at home vs. Ohio State. The Big Ten Tournament, which Indiana swept in 2014 and won in 2013, will be held at Target Field in Minneapolis.
