As temperatures struggle to reach the teens in the Rust Belt the college baseball season begins. Thirty-nine Division I baseball schools in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, the Rust Belt, will head to all points south and west with expectations and determination. These schools will play road games for the first three to four weeks of the season. Few of these teams will gain the automatic an NCAA Tournament invitation that goes with a league title; even fewer will receive at-large bids.
There is always hope, that combined with a universal start date, an adjusted RPI, improved facilities and quality coaches gives these hardy teams a better opportunity of competing with warm weather schools on a national level.
Rust Belt Opening Weekend Preview
Big Ten defending champion Indiana, picked to finish fourth in the conference, heads to California to face #24 Stanford, the team that knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament last season. Scott Effross, Christian Morris and Jake Kelzer are the projected starters versus the Cardinal.
Illinois, picked to finish third in the conference, played eight games in the Dominican Republic where they faced Dominican Instructional teams, finishing 5-2-1 on the road trip. The Illini open the season on the road again, this time in Beaumont, Texas for the Lamar cardinal Classic. They will play a pair of games with New Mexico State and Lamar.
Ohio State, picked sixth in the preseason poll, heads to Port Charlotte, Florida for the Snowbird Classic. The Buckeyes face George Mason, St Louis and Pittsburg. St Louis is a preseason favorite in the Atlantic 10 conference, while defending champion George Mason was picked third.
Michigan, slotted for a fifth place finish in the conference, has a trio of players to watch in the Big Ten, Jackson Glines, Travis Maezes and Jacob Cronenworth. The Wolverines fly to California to face the Long Beach State Dirtbags for a three game series, Brett Adcock will start the Friday opener.
Michigan State travels to Surprise, Arizona for three games versus New Mexico, Oregon State and Northwestern. The Spartans were picked to finish in the middle of the conference.
Purdue opens with a three game set at Western Carolina. And Northwestern joins Michigan State in Arizona for games with the Spartans, New Mexico and Oregon State.
The Mid America Conference opens with West division favorite Ball State traveling to Wilmington, North Carolina to face Kentucky, UNC-Wilmington and Richmond in the Buffalo Wild Wings Battle @ The Beach. Eastern Division favorite Kent State has a three game set with Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Other games of note; Miami, playing in only two games on opening weekend, heads to Starkville, Mississippi for games with intrastate rival Cincinnati and perennial power #22 Mississippi State. Central Michigan faces Florida Gulf Coast four times in three days and Western Michigan is in Birmingham, Alabama to face UAB in a three game series.
Eastern Michigan facing heavyweight Arizona for three games in Tucson appears to be the early season mismatch.
The rest of the MAC has Toledo matching up with Wright State and Belmont in Nashville for three games; Bowling Green facing Southeast Missouri State three times; Northern Illinois faces South Dakota State, Niagara and host Austin Peay; Akron is at Furman for three games and Ohio University goes three times against UNC Ashville.
Horizon League favorite Wright State will be in chilly Nashville facing home state rival Toledo for a pair of games and host Belmont for a pair. The University of Illinois at Chicago has four games against Mississippi Valley State and Milwaukee and Maine square off four times in Winter Haven, Florida.
Oakland opens the season with a trip to Tallahassee to face the #16 Seminoles three times. The series pits a Golden Grizzlies pitching staff that posted a 5.98 ERA against an FSU team that averaged 6.55 runs per game in 2014.
Valparaiso travels to San Diego for three games against the San Diego State Aztecs who have a new head coach, Mark Martinez. Martinez takes the reins following the passing of Tony Gwynn, whose number will be retired prior to the series opener on February 13th.
Last season’s league representative, Youngstown State heads to Florida for three games at Jacksonville State.
The Summit League sports a pair of Rust Belt teams, the Indiana Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons and the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks. Fort Wayne will be in Huntsville, Alabama for a four game series with Alabama A & M and Western Illinois is one of the few Division I teams idle on opening weekend.
Five Rust Belt teams compete in the Missouri Valley Conference; Bradley, Illinois State, Southern Illinois, Indiana State and Evansville. None are expected to challenge for the conference title and none play a challenging non-conference schedule.
Bradley will play in the Grand Canyon University Classic in Phoenix; they face two Summit League teams, North Dakota State and Omaha, as well as host Grand Canyon. Illinois State travels to Jonesboro to play three games with Arkansas State, Evansville, also visits Arkansas, for a three game series with Arkansas-Little Rock. Southern Illinois has the conference’s toughest opener as the face #3 TCU three times in Fort Worth. Indiana State faces three different opponents in Louisiana Monroe, Grambling State and Central Arkansas.
Ohio Valley Conference Rust Belt members, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and Eastern Illinois, are picked to finish in the middle of the conference race. SIUE will have an early test as they head to Norman, Oklahoma to face Notre Dame Friday and Oklahoma on Saturday and Sunday. Eastern Illinois invades Athens, Georgia for a three game weekend series with a much improved Georgia Bulldogs squad.
Xavier and Butler, Rust Belt teams in the Big East, should come out of opening weekend with several victories over lesser competition. Xavier has four games scheduled in Spartanburg, South Carolina; the Musketeers face Boston College twice and Army and Wofford once each. Butler is in Nashville for three games with Atlantic Sun Conference member, Lipscomb.
The Dayton Flyers, the sole Rust Belt representative in the Atlantic 10 Conference, head to Spartanburg, South Carolina for the Spartanburg Classic where they play South Carolina Upstate, Army and Wofford. The Flyers were picked to finish sixth in the coaches’ poll, receiving one first place vote.
The University of Cincinnati was tabbed to finish last in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll but they do have the conference’s preseason player of the year, Ian Happ. The Bearcats, Happ in tow, pull into Starkville, Mississippi for the Mississippi State Classic. Following an opener with Miami of Ohio, UC faces Mississippi State three times; the series will provide a glimpse into the Bearcats’ chances in the rugged American Athletic Conference.
Notre Dame faces a daunting season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, where six teams are ranked in Baseball America’s Top 25. The Irish open with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in Norman, Oklahoma, they then face the Oklahoma Sooners in three games. Notre Dame has light non-conference schedule until they open ACC play.
Western Athletic Conference member Chicago State has a three game series with Charleston Southern; both teams are picked to finish near the bottom of their respective conferences.
