Lincoln – Coming off a 41-win season and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, Head Coach Darin Erstad will continue to challenge the Nebraska baseball team in 2015 as it works to reach its ultimate goal of playing in Omaha at the College World Series.
The Huskers are set to play 56 games in 2015, including 27 games at Hawks Field. The Huskers will play 15 games against teams that qualified for the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including a Big Ten road series at Super Regional qualifier Maryland and a three-game home series against College World Series qualifier Texas.
The Huskers will spend the first four weeks of the season on the road, playing a total of 13 games. NU then returns to Hawks Field for 16 straight homes games, including a pair of midweek series with Indiana State and Cal State Fullerton, along with weekend series against Michigan, Florida Gulf Coast and Texas.
Nebraska will play eight Big Ten Conference series, including home sets with Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State and Purdue, while traveling to Maryland, Iowa, Northwestern and Illinois. The Huskers will not play Indiana, Rutgers, Penn State or Michigan State during the 2015 regular season.
The 2015 season kicks off in Las Vegas, Nev., on Friday, Feb. 13, at Earl E. Wilson Baseball Stadium when the Huskers open a three-game series against the UNLV Rebels. NU returns to the southwest region the following weekend when they play BYU in Peoria, Ariz., in a four-game series that opens on Thursday, Feb. 19. The squads will play a doubleheader on Friday and then wrap of the series on Saturday.
Nebraska then travels to Los Angeles, Calif., for a three-game series with the Loyola Marymount Lions that starts on Friday, Feb. 27. The only other time the two teams met was during the 1988 season, also in Los Angeles.
Nebraska’s fourth-straight road trip to start the season will be to Houston, Texas, where the Huskers will compete at the 15th annual Houston College Classic. Held at Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros, the Huskers open the tournament on Friday, March 6 against former Big 12 foe and now SEC member Texas A&M. NU then takes on a Hawaii on Saturday before meeting another SEC squad on Sunday in LSU. The 2015 event will mark Nebraska’s first appearance at the Houston College Classic, and it will mark the 17th time the Huskers have played in a non-conference tournament in the state of Texas since the 2000.
After playing 13 games on the road, Nebraska hosts its home opener on Tuesday, March 10, when the Northern Colorado Bears come to Lincoln. After a pair of games with the Bears, the Huskers host Florida Gulf Coast for a three-game series that starts on Friday, March 13. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Huskers and Eagles.
Nebraska’s 16-game homestand continues on Tuesday, March 17 when the Indiana State Sycamores travel to Hawks Field for a midweek series. Nebraska then opens Big Ten play on Friday, March 20 with a three-game series against the Michigan Wolverines.
The Huskers will stay in Lincoln during Spring Break and will have a challenging week. The Cal State Fullerton Titans, who knocked the Huskers out of the 2014 NCAA Tournament, will be in Lincoln on Tuesday, March 24 and Wednesday, March 25, before Texas travels to Hawks Field for a weekend series that starts on Friday, March 27. It will be the Longhorns’ first trip to Lincoln since 2011, the Huskers’ finals season in the Big 12 Conference.
The homestand comes to an end on Tuesday, March 31 when the Huskers host the Creighton Bluejays for the first of three meetings throughout the season between the two programs.
The month of April starts with a trip to Werner Park, home of the Omaha Storm Chasers, where the Huskers will meet Nebraska-Omaha on April 1. Nebraska then makes its first conference road trip of the year when it heads to College Park, Md., for a three-game series against Big Ten newcomer Maryland.
Following a midweek game in Manhattan, Kan., on Tuesday, April 7, the Huskers host Minnesota for a three-game conference series starting on Friday, April 10. The Huskers then travel to Omaha on Tuesday, April 14 for a meeting with Creighton before returning home for five straight games.
Nebraska completes its season series against Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday, April 15 before hosting Ohio State for a three-game series that starts on Friday, April 17. It will be the third-straight season that the Buckeyes have played a conference series in Lincoln. The short homestand comes to an end on Tuesday, April 21 with a visit from Kansas State.
The Huskers then play seven-straight games away from Hawks Field, starting with a three-game conference series at Iowa starting on Friday, April. 24. It will mark the third-straight season the Huskers have traveled to Iowa City, Iowa, during league play. The Huskers then play their final of three games against Creighton at TD Ameritrade Park on Tuesday, April 28, before opening the month of May with a conference series against Northwestern that starts on Friday, May 1 in Evanston, Ill.
Nebraska hosts its final regular-season home games of the year starting on Saturday, May 9, when the Purdue Boilermakers come to Lincoln for a three-game series that runs Saturday through Monday.
The regular-season comes to a close in Champaigne, Ill., with a three-game series against Illinois that starts on Thursday, May 14.
The 2015 Big Ten Baseball Tournament is scheduled to run from Wednesday, May 20 through Sunday, May 24 and will take place in Minneapolis, Minn., at Target Field, the home of the Minnesota Twins. Target Field played host to the 2013 Big Ten Baseball Tournament, with the Huskers falling in the championship game to Indiana.
