MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (November 18, 2014) – West Virginia University Director of Athletics Oliver Luck has announced the 54-game 2015 Mountaineer baseball schedule, featuring 24 games against 2014 NCAA Tournament teams as well as 22 homes games in the team’s new ballpark.
“The opening of the new ballpark is not only exciting for West Virginia University, but also for the North Central West Virginia community, and we look forward to ushering in a new era of WVU baseball at Monongalia County Ballpark,” Luck said.
The Mountaineers will square off against five teams who played in the Super Regionals and three opponents who were in the College World Series. Additionally, 14 opponents finished in the Top 100 of the final RPI.
“The schedule that Randy Mazey has put together features some of the top talent in the nation,” Luck said. “The Big 12 had a banner season with five teams making the tournament last year, and we are pleased to host two of the teams that made it to the College World Series.”
WVU will play 22 of its first 23 games away from home, beginning with a series at Clemson (Feb. 13-15) to face Mazey’s alma mater. The following weekend the Mountaineers will travel for a series at Georgia Southern (Feb. 20-22). Both teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season.
“I don’t see any reason to play teams that don’t create excitement,” Mazey said. “The fans want to see you play good teams and that doesn’t do anything but help you. That’s why we try to play the best people we can.”
A trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, begins the second month of the season with games against Kent State (Feb. 27), Coastal Carolina (Feb. 27), Ball State (Feb. 28) and Illinois (March 1).
West Virginia will head to Johnson City, Tennessee, to take on East Tennessee State University (March 6-8), and will stay on the road for a single game at Liberty (March 10).
“With a whole new team, this is a massive rebuilding year,” Mazey said. “That experience we’ve had traveling the last two years isn’t really going to help us because this team is so new.”
The Big 12 season begins with a series at Texas (March 13-15), taking on the Longhorns who played in the College World Series last year.
Sandwiched in between two road Big 12 series is the home opener of Monongalia County Ballpark, as the Mountaineers will take on Waynesburg (March 17). The significance of the game is that West Virginia hosted Waynesburg in the first game in school history to open the 1892 season.
“We’re really excited to play Waynesburg. One hundred twenty-two years ago the very first game WVU ever played was against Waynesburg,” Mazey said. “In the new era with the new facility, we’re going to renew that old rivalry so to speak by playing Waynesburg in that first game. There is a lot of nostalgia and we’re going to try and bring some alumni back and show the people that we’re making progress.”
West Virginia will play another road Big 12 series at Baylor (March 20-22), and will stay in Texas that week for a pair of midweek games at Stephen F. Austin (March 24) and UT Arlington (March 25).
The Mountaineers briefly return home for a three-game non-conference series against Charleston Southern (March 27-31), a team Mazey coached from 1994-96.
“It’s going to be neat having them here,” Mazey said. “I got to spend three years there and got to know that program really well. It’s going to be good to see those people again and have a big series in our new ballpark.”
The first game of a home-and-home series with Pitt (March 31) will be played in Pittsburgh, followed by another road Big 12 series at Kansas State (April 2-4). The five-game road swing will be capped with a game at Maryland (April 7).
Eighteen of the next 23 games will be played at Monongalia County Ballpark, which features a non-conference series against Butler (April 10-12), and Big 12 series against Oklahoma (April 17-19), Kansas (April 24-26), TCU (May 1-3) and Texas Tech (May 14-16). TCU and Texas Tech each played in last season’s College World Series.
“Hopefully it is going to be a huge home field advantage for us. A team like Texas Tech, who is coming here, ended up going 33-4 at home last season. That’s what I hope this ballpark does for us,” Mazey said. “Over time, when we get this thing built up and have a couple of recruiting classes that have seen the finished product, I’m hoping that it’s going to enable us to play well and be a tough place for opponents to play.”
Home midweek games during that span include Penn State (April 14), Marshall (April 21) and Pitt (May 12), while WVU also will play against Marshall (April 28) at Appalachian Power Park in Charleston.
The Mountaineers will travel to Virginia Tech (May 5), followed by the final road Big 12 series of the season at Oklahoma State (May 8-10).
The 2015 Big 12 Tournament is slated for May 20-24 at ONEOK Field in Tulsa, Okla., before the NCAA Tournament begins May 29.
