COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M Baseball announced its schedule for the 2016 season, a 56-game slate that features 36 home games in the friendly confines of Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.
The Aggies will play 11 teams that participated in the 2015 NCAA Championship for a total of 25 games, including Arkansas (3), Auburn (3), Florida (3), LSU (3), Ole Miss (3), Pepperdine (3), Vanderbilt (3), Houston, Houston Baptist, Rice and Texas. The schedule includes 35 games against teams that finished in the Top 100 of the 2015 RPI, including 13 games against RPI Top 25 opponents.
“Once again we have a challenging schedule ahead of us,” Texas A&M head coach Rob Childress said. “You run out of ways to describe how tough the SEC schedule is. We drew some tough challenges from the eastern side of the conference with Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Vanderbilt and the West Division series are turning into intense rivalries. We have tough teams on the non-conference schedule, and I think fans will enjoy seeing Texas, Rice and Houston on the schedule.”
The Aggies’ 2016 campaign commences with a five-game homestand, including the season-opening three-game series against Hofstra (Feb. 19-21).
The Maroon and White head to Malibu at the end of February for their lone non-conference road series, playing Pepperdine on Feb. 26-28.
Texas A&M starts off March with its longest homestand of the season. It begins with a March 1 game against Houston Baptist and wraps up on March 15 as the Aggies host the Texas Longhorns. The homestand includes three-game series against Yale (March 4-6) and Fresno State (March 11-13) and a two-game midweek set against Northwestern State (March 8-9).
The Aggies open SEC play on March 18-20 with a road series at Auburn. The Aggies play their first-ever SEC road series at Florida (April 1-3). Other road trips in league action include Mississippi State (April 15-17), Arkansas (April 29-May 1) and South Carolina (May 13-15).
Texas A&M begins the SEC home slate with a bang, hosting LSU on March 24-26. The Aggies other home league series include Georgia (April 8-10), Alabama (April 22-24), Vanderbilt (May 5-7) and Ole Miss (May 19-21).
“The home conference slate is the most enticing we’ve had since joining the conference,” Childress said. “Our series against LSU the last three years have been like prize fights – an intense three or four hour battle every night. Vanderbilt, who has played for the national championship the last two years, finally comes to Blue Bell Park. Georgia, Alabama and Ole Miss are all loaded with talent, so fans are in for some amazing games.”
The remainder of the Aggies’ 12 midweek home games include contests against Stephen F. Austin (Feb. 23), Prairie View A&M (Feb. 24), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (March 22), Abilene Christian (April 12), Texas State (April 19), UT Arlington (April 26), Incarnate Word (May 4) and Sam Houston State (May 17).
Texas A&M travels for midweek games on at Houston (March 29) and Rice (May 5).
The SEC Tournament is slated for May 24-29 at the Hoover Met.
NCAA Regional action is scheduled for June 3-5, followed by the Super Regionals from June 10-13. College baseball’s national champion will be crowned in Omaha at the College World Series on June 18-29.
Texas A&M is coming off a 2015 campaign in which they finished 50-14, the highest win total for the Aggies since 1999, and claimed an NCAA Regional title.
