STORRS, Conn. – Head coach Jim Penders and the UConn baseball team have announced the schedule for the 2015 season. The Huskies will play a challenging 57-game regular season slate, including 24 American Athletic Conference match-ups and 17 home games at J.O. Christian Field in Storrs.
The Huskies begin the season with four road series in the South, including a set against a 2014 Super Regional participant. UConn opens on Feb. 13 in Boca Raton, Fla. for the first of three contests at Florida Atlantic. The Huskies and Owls’ lone three other meetings came in a season-opening series in 2006, with UConn taking two of three from No. 20 FAU. A three-game set with 2014 NCAA Tournament participant Siena follows, with the Huskies and Saints set for a three-game series from Feb. 21-23 at Tradition Field in Port St. Lucia, Fla., the spring training home of the New York Mets. UConn is 4-7-1 all-time against Siena in a series that dates back to 1980.
Connecticut will visit Kennesaw State for the first meetings in program history from Feb. 27-March 1. The Owls advanced to the 2014 Super Regionals last season, winning the Tallahassee Regional on the way. The Huskies then visit Florida International in Miami for three from March 6-8, with the Panthers also signifying a first-time opponent.
UConn’s first midweek game is scheduled for March 10 at Sacred Heart in Bridgeport, Conn. Throughout the course of the season, the Huskies will play midweek games against its typical set of familiar regional foes.
Included are away games against; Sacred Heart (March 10), Yale (March 24), Central Connecticut (March 25), Fairfield (April 14), Bryant (April 15) and Rhode Island (May 12). Home games include; Boston College (March 31, home opener), Hartford (April 6), Northeastern (April 7), Massachusetts (April 21), UMass Lowell (April 22) and Holy Cross (April 29). The Huskies have played each midweek foe at least 18 times in the past, with three foes (Boston College, UMass, Rhode Island) coming in at more than 100 all-time meetings. The lone exception to that is UMass Lowell, which made the jump to Division-1 last season.
The Huskies’ annual spring break trip will send them first to Greenville, S.C. for a tournament with Furman, Michigan State and USC Upstate at Fluor Field from March 13-15. UConn is 0-4 all-time against MSU and has never faced Furman or USC Upstate. The Huskies then begin to make their way north with stops at Wake Forest on March 17 and at William & Mary on March 18, before arriving in the Garden State for match-ups in South Orange, N.J. with former Big East rival Seton Hall and Fordham. The SHU contest reignites a rivalry that began in 1919, with the Pirates up 45-33 all-time. The final game of the trip is on March 21, a second game with Fordham.
American Athletic Conference play begins March 27 with a three-game set at league-newcomer Tulane. On the road in league play, UConn takes on Tulane (March 27-29), UCF (April 10-12), East Carolina (May 1-3) and Houston (May 14-16). The Huskies will play home conference series against USF (April 2-4), East Carolina (April 17-19), Memphis (April 24-26) and Cincinnati (May 8-10). Last year in its first season in The American, UConn went 9-15 in league play to finish seventh in the league.
The American Championship returns to Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater, Fla. from May 20-24. UConn went 1-2 in the now-defunct pool play format in Clearwater last season. In 2013, Bright House Field was the site of Connecticut’s improbable run from 8-seed to tournament champions at the final Big East Tournament.
