NEW ORLEANS – With the 2015 season just months away, Tulane baseball released its schedule for the upcoming campaign on Tuesday, and the Green Wave will play 30 games inside the friendly confines of Greer Field at Turchin Stadium in addition to squaring off in 17 games against teams who made NCAA Regional appearances last season.
Not only does Tulane play a plethora of games against 2014 NCAA Regional participants, but 32 of the games the Green Wave will play this season will be against top-100 RPI programs, which played a major role in creating the schedule.
“The one thing that we want to do is create a great balance in our schedule,” stated Tulane baseball head coach David Pierce. “Our non-conference and conference schedules are balanced with very quality teams. When we build our schedule, we look at teams who have done well in the past and teams that will give us an opportunity to create a good RPI schedule. We have a lot of quality in this schedule, and I think our players and our fans should be very excited about it.”
The 2015 season marks Tulane baseball’s first year in the American Athletic Conference. Tulane will play host to UConn (March 27-29), UCF (April 17-19), Houston (May 1-3) and USF (March 8-10). Tulane will hit the road for games against American opponents when they travel to East Carolina (April 2-4), Houston (April 10-12), Cincinnati (April 24-26) and Memphis (May 14-16).
Many of The American teams are programs Tulane has played in the past as part of former conferences. South Florida, Cincinnati and Memphis were league rivals of Tulane in both the Metro Conference and Conference USA, while Houston, UCF and ECU were all a part of C-USA at some point since the league’s inception in 1996.
Tulane will play Houston – who advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals last season – at home and on the road, as each American Athletic Conference baseball team will play a home-and-home series with their regional opponent.
“Moving into The American Athletic Conference, this schedule is very conducive to a great RPI schedule,” added Pierce. “Because we have eight teams in the league, it creates a little imbalance, so we have to play one team six times. It makes the most sense, as we spent probably five hours this past September at the league meetings. Right now, this is the best scenario. We have a lot of teams that were the best teams in Conference USA that are now in The American. We have three new coaches (Cliff Godwin at ECU, former Tulane assistant Mark Kingston at USF and Pierce) and every team in this league is very prepared to compete at this new level.”
The American Athletic Tournament will be held in Clearwater, Florida, from May 19-24.
Prior to league play, Tulane will be challenged with a strong out-of-conference schedule that will see them travel to California twice over the course of a month-and-a-half. The Green Wave will open up the 2015 campaign against 2014 NCAA Super Regional participant Pepperdine in Malibu, California, from Feb. 13-15. During the final weekend of non-conference play, Tulane will travel to Riverside, California, for a three-game series against UC Riverside from March 20-22.
In between their two trips to the West Coast, Tulane will host four solid programs at home in weekend series. Tulane will open the home portion of their schedule against San Francisco (Feb. 20-22), a team the Green Wave played last year on their West Coast swing. Following the weekend against the Dons, Tulane will hold series against Creighton (Feb.27-March 1), Gonzaga (March 6-8) and 2014 NCAA Regional participant Xavier (March 13-15).
“Much of your schedule is done a year or two out, and Tulane’s was no different,” mentioned Pierce. “We made a couple of adjustments, though. We open at Pepperdine, which will be a challenge right out of the gates. The bulk of our non-conference – San Francisco, Creighton, Gonzaga and Xavier – are all quality teams. Then we finish up out at UC-Riverside. The American was still in some type of limbo as to what we were going to be doing from March 20-22, so we had to find a series to finish our non-conference schedule. I think our non-conference schedule is very competitive.”
The Green Wave will also play their usual midweek schedule against in-state opponents, including contests against 2014 NCAA Regional participants LSU and Southeastern Louisiana. Tulane will also face some out-of-state opponents during midweek play during the season.
Tulane will travel to Hammond for a game against Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 18 before hosting the Lions on March 17 and April 28. Tulane will also play back-to-back games against crosstown rival New Orleans on Feb. 24 (at Maestri Field) and on Feb. 25 (at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium).
The Green Wave will make a trip down to the bayou to play Nicholls State on March 3 before hosting the Colonels on April 7.
The Green Wave will look to follow up 2014’s home win against LSU during the 2015 campaign on April 22. The two teams will also battle in Baton Rouge on March 25.
Tulane will also play out-of-conference-opponent UNC-Wilmington in Wilmington, North Carolina, on March 31 during the team’s swing to the Tar Heel State before taking on East Carolina. The week-long trip falls during Tulane’s spring break.
For the first time since 1989, Tulane and Southern Miss will square off against one another in non-conference matchups, as Tulane will travel to Hattiesburg on March 11 before the Golden Eagles make a return trip on April 14. Tulane and Southern Miss were both members of the Metro Conference from 1990-1995 before both joined Conference USA during the 1996 season.
“We are playing midweek games against teams who have had a lot of success,” stated Pierce. “Southeastern Louisiana was an NCAA Regional team last season. LSU is always an NCAA Regional team. Southern Miss is one of those Conference USA teams we are very familiar with. Then there are teams like Nicholls State who made statements last year. They finished second in the Southland Conference.”
In addition to playing the 53-game schedule against outside competition, Tulane will play their annual Alumni Game on Feb. 7 at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium at 1pm CT. More information on that weekend will be announced in the coming weeks.
