JONESBORO, Ark. (12/18/14) – Highlighted by Sun Belt Conference matchups with UT Arlington, Georgia State, South Alabama, Appalachian State and Arkansas-Little Rock as well as a visit from 2014 College World Series participant Ole Miss, the Arkansas State baseball team will host 26 games at Tomlinson Stadium as part of the 2015 schedule head coach Tommy Raffo announced Thursday afternoon.
A-State will kickoff the season with a four-game series against Illinois State Feb. 13-15, which includes a doubleheader on Valentines Day, and will take to the road for a midweek contest against the Rebels of Ole Miss Feb. 17. The following Saturday the Red Wolves will travel to Natchitoches, La., for a two-team doubleheader against Creighton and Northwestern State and will return home Feb. 24 to renew its regional midweek series with Southeast Missouri.
A trip to Houston Baptist (Feb. 27-March 1) will be the final weekend non-conference series before the Red Wolves will jump into league play March 6-8 at Tomlinson Stadium against UT Arlington. This will mark the second straight season that A-State has opened SBC competition at home, but the first time since 2010 that the conference-opening weekend opponent is someone other than UALR.
Other home Sun Belt Conference opponents include Georgia State (March 13-15), South Alabama (April 3-5), Appalachian State (April 24-26) and Arkansas-Little Rock (May 14-16). The Panthers will play in Jonesboro for the first time since joining the conference, while the meeting with the Mountaineers will be the first in series history.
A-State’s five road league series include trips to NCAA Regional participant Georgia Southern (March 20-22), NCAA Super Regional participant Louisiana-Lafayette (March 27-29), Troy (April 10-12), Louisiana-Monroe (April 17-19) and Texas State (May 8-10).
Arkansas State will also face strong competition from a number of regional foes. In addition to hosting SEMO at the start of the season, the Red Wolves will host Missouri State (March 10-11) Central Arkansas (April 14), Murray State (April 21), Memphis (April 28) and Ole Miss (May 12). A-State will travel to SIU-Carbondale (March 3), Memphis (March 17), Murray State (March 24), SEMO (March 31) and Central Arkansas (May 5).
For the first time since the 2010 season each team in the Sun Belt Conference will have a bye weekend in which they are allowed to schedule an out of conference series and the Red Wolves will travel to Kansas State to take on the on the Big 12 Conference opponent May 1-3. It will be the first first time in the series that the two teams have met since the 2008 season.
The 2015 Sun Belt Baseball Championship will be held at Riddle-Pace Field in Troy, Ala., May 20-24. NCAA play begins the following weekend with campus sites hosting regional action May 29-June 1.
2015 Arkansas State Schedule (PDF)
