CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Charlotte baseball will make at-least two pieces of program history hoping to add more as Head Coach Loren Hibbs announced the 2015 schedule on Wednesday morning. The slate calls for 56 games in all, a whopping 34 at home and 30 inside Conference USA. The one piece of history will be made on Tuesday, March 31st as the Niners will host N.C. State in Uptown Charlotte at the new BB&T Ballpark, home of the Charlotte Knights. The tilt, designated as a Niner “Green Out” with all fans encouraged to wear green that night, will be the first-ever collegiate game inside the newest minor league facility that recently hosted last year’s Triple-A National Championship game.
In what is scheduled to be a yearly tradition, the Niners will host the Wolfpack for a mid-week matchup in the 10,200-seat BB&T Ballpark that will have opened just a year and nine days before the Niners-Wolfpack begin the 6:05 p.m. contest. The Charlotte Knights, triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, led the International League in home runs during the 2014 season thanks in part to their offensive-friendly new digs. The Niners will look at the March 31st contest and future games played Uptown as a tryout to host a future Conference USA tournament.
“What a great opportunity for our program to be the first-ever college game at the new BB&T Ballpark,” exclaimed Hibbs. “Thanks to Coach (Elliott) Avent and N.C. State for their willingness to play us Uptown. Thanks to Dan (Rajkowski) and Scotty (Brown) for providing us this opportunity. The Knights are a first class organization and we are absolutely excited to partner with them for this event. Everyone is already looking forward to March 31st. We’re ready for Niner Nation to show its support for us as the Charlotte Knights on March 31st.”
In just 100 days, Charlotte will immediately be a part of some unique history kicking off the 2015 season at Georgia during the weekend of February 13-15. Foley Field, baseball home of the Bulldogs, is currently undergoing a $12 million dollar renovation and the Niners will have the honor of being the first visiting team in the updated facility. Georgia posted a 26-29-1 mark a season ago going 11-17-1 in SEC play. The Bulldogs were eliminated from the SEC tournament’s first round with a 5-4, 10-inning loss to Auburn.
After opening weekend in Athens, the Niners will come home for their longest homestand of the year with 18-straight to be played at Robert and Mariam Hayes Stadium. The stretch will feature four weekend opponents and get Charlotte two weeks deep into the Conference USA season before traveling to another road game. Akron (28-29, 12-15 MAC) will kick off the nearly five-week homestand with a four-game series that will feature the only scheduled doubleheader of the year on Saturday. The Zips fell to Kent State 3-0 in the MAC championship game in 2014.
College of Charleston (44-19, 15-6 CAA) will be the first midweek opponent coming in the following Wednesday for a rematch from last season’s meeting in Charleston. The Cougars took advantage of Charlotte errors to take a 5-2 victory in late February. College of Charleston made the deepest NCAA tournament run of any Niner opponent in 2015 making quick work by winning the Gainesville Regional with a 3-0 record after defeating host Florida and Long Beach State twice. The Cougars, traveling to Texas Tech for the Super Regional, dropped a pair of heartbreaking 1-0 games to end their season.
Charlotte, for the second-straight season, will have the good news of starting Conference USA play at home during the weekend of March 6th. The potential bad news is, the defending league champs are coming to town in the Rice Owls. Rice posted a 42-win season going 42-20 and won C-USA with 23 wins in 30 opportunities. The Owls hosted the Houston Regional at Reckling Park falling to Texas 3-2 in 11 and Texas A&M 9-8 in 10.
Florida Atlantic (28-25, 14-16) took two of three from the Niners last season in Boca Raton and will make their first -ever appearance in Charlotte the following weekend. The Owls narrowly missed last year’s C-USA tournament finishing a game below .500.
After a visit from High Point (33-22, 18-9), before the FAU weekend set, and non-conference tilts against Maryland-Eastern Shore (13-35, 8-15 MEAC) and Presbyterian (19-34-1, 9-18 Big South), the Niners will finally head back out on the road traveling down to FIU (36-20, 16-14) in Miami for their first C-USA road series of the year. The Panthers gave the Niners a rough greeting back into C-USA play sweeping the three-game series here in 2014. FIU just barely squeaked their way into the year-end tournament but saw their efforts come up short with losses to Rice and Old Dominion down in Hattiesburg.
Upon returning from Florida, the Niners will head to Winston-Salem for the first of two meetings with Wake Forest on Wednesday, March 25th. The Demon Deacons will return the favor traveling to Charlotte on Tuesday, April 21st.
Louisiana Tech (15-35, 5-25) will be the third C-USA opponent in four-series to visit Hayes Stadium to help round out March before the N.C. State game uptown. Charlotte, making their first-ever trip to Ruston, swept all three from the Bulldogs a year ago.
The longest road trip of the season will kick off the month of April as Charlotte heads out for seven-straight beginning with three at Old Dominion (36-26, 17-13). The Niners will make their second-straight trip to Norfolk after dropping two-of-three to the Monarchs who received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. ODU traveled down to South Carolina for the Columbia Regional and were eliminated by Maryland and Campbell to end their season. On the back end of the trip will be a three-game series against Marshall (20-31, 10-19) with a trip to Virginia Tech (21-31-1, 9-21) sandwiched in-between. The Niners series against the Herd will be played at Epling Stadium in Beckley, West Virginia after their 5:30 p.m. matchup with the Hokies just three days earlier.
The first of two meetings with Winthrop (27-33, 14-13 Big South) will take place at home on Tuesday, April 14th before a return trip to Raleigh to face N.C. State on the 15th. From mid-April on, the Niners will have to navigate through the toughest part of their schedule if they are to clinch a Conference USA tournament berth.
That stretch begins with Middle Tennessee (31-27, 18-13) at home for a three-game weekend series starting April 17th before a trip down to Birmingham to face UAB (35-21, 20-10). The Blue Raiders used solid starting pitching to sweep the Niners in Murfreesboro last March while the Blazers did a lot of the same in three wins at Hayes Stadium in early May.
Gardner-Webb (24-31, 11-15 Big South) will come to Charlotte this season on April 28th after last year’s scheduled meeting in Boiling Springs was washed out. During the bye weekend of the C-USA schedule, Charlotte will once again welcome Dallas Baptist to town for a three-game series to begin the final month of May.
Dallas Baptist (40-21, 14-7 MVC) took home the Missouri Valley title last season and participated in the NCAA’s Fort Worth Regional. DBU has won five of the six total meetings between the two clubs including all three in Charlotte back in 2012.
The grueling end of the season slate will end with a three-game C-USA series at Southern Miss (35-25, 19-11) before hosting UTSA (35-26, 16-14) for the final regular season weekend May 14-16. The Eagles, who played deep into the C-USA tourney before falling to UTSA, took two-of-three to end the Niners regular season last year. The Roadrunners will travel east for the first time in their program history to play in Charlotte after the Niners recorded wins on Friday and Sunday during their trip to San Antonio last year. UTSA also played deep into the C-USA tourney falling to Rice 11-5 late on Championship Sunday.
The Conference USA tournament will take place during the long weekend of May 20-24 at one of three sites still being decided on by the league office.
To add another level of toughness onto the 2015 schedule, all 24 opponents combined to win 714 ball games last season with eight of those posting at-least 35 wins in their respective campaigns.
“We continue to play a very aggressive schedule with the primary goal of positioning our program for a NCAA Tournament bid,” finished Hibbs. “Having 34 home games including C-USA series’ against Rice, FAU, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, and UTSA, along with a series against Dallas Baptist, will be great for our fan base and season ticket holders. Combine those with the midweek contests against many of the better programs in our area; it makes for a pretty tremendous home schedule. Even on the road, we will be challenged at FIU, ODU, Marshall, Southern Miss and UAB all after opening at Georgia.”
2015 Charlotte Baseball Schedule (PDF)
