SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Head coach Andrew Checketts and the UC Santa Barbara baseball program today unveiled yet another challenging schedule for the 2015 season, with a slate of opponents featuring eight participants in last year’s NCAA Tournament and nine former national champions who have combined for a total of 19 Division I titles.
Key non-conference foes for the upcoming season include Pac-12 powerhouse Oregon, SEC mainstay Kentucky, reigning WCC champion Pepperdine, and 12-time NCAA champion USC.
It will be the first time in program history that UCSB will face off against Kentucky. Joining the Wildcats as first-time opponents for the Gauchos is the University of Texas, Arlington.
“We’ve established as a program that we are always going to put together a tough schedule,” said Checketts. “We feel that the non-conference teams we’re bringing in and the road trips we’re going on will prepare us for reaching one of our goals, which is winning the Big West Conference.”
The Gauchos will open the 2015 season with a four game-set against Brigham Young University beginning on Friday, Feb. 13. That series against the Cougars is the start of the stretch that will see UCSB play eight straight and 12 of 13 at home out of the gate.
Following BYU is a two-game series against Kentucky on Feb. 20 and 21.
The next weekend will pit Checketts against one of his mentors and his former boss in George Horton, head coach at Oregon. The Ducks – who have made the postseason out of the historically strong Pac-12 in four of the past five seasons – will make their first visit to Caesar Uyesaka Stadium since 1967 from Feb. 27 through Mar. 1.
The Gauchos will go on their first non-conference road trip from Mar. 6-8 as they travel to WAC Champion Sacramento State. The following weekend (Mar. 13-15) they will take on the Shockers of Wichita State in one of the team’s two out-of-state series.
UCSB opens conference play on Mar. 27 by hosting Long Beach State. In Big West play, they will also host Cal Poly (Apr. 17-19), UC Davis (May 1-3), and UC Irvine (May 15-17) while traveling to Cal State Northridge (Apr. 10-12), Hawai’i (Apr. 24-26), Cal State Fullerton (May 8-10), and UC Riverside (May 21-23).
The Gauchos are scheduled to play midweek home-and-home series with Pepperdine, USC, Cal State Bakersfield, and Loyola Marymount.
