BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Samford head baseball coach Casey Dunn unveiled the team’s 2016 schedule Wednesday, as the Bulldogs’ upcoming slate features 33 home games, as well as pivotal non-conference road series’ at Southern Miss and Louisiana-Monroe. Samford will also maintain its annual home-and-home matchups with in-state foes Alabama, UAB, Troy, Jacksonville State and Alabama State.
“We have some really good opportunities in our preconference schedule to play quality teams, both at home and on the road,” said Dunn. “We have four very good out-of-conference home sets and two really good road trips at Louisiana-Monroe and a quality Southern Miss team, which has been a consistent regional contender, as well as a team that draws really well.”
Samford will play a majority of its games in Birmingham this season and boasts home series’ against Butler, BYU, Jacksonville and Kansas. Additionally, the Bulldogs will play host to defending Southern Conference Tournament-champion Mercer, Wofford, ETSU and VMI in league action.
Last season, Samford compiled a solid 17-11 overall record at home.
“We were also able to get a home series with a very good team in Jacksonville, as well as Butler, BYU and Kansas, which are all nationally-known name teams,” Dunn said. “Butler and BYU will come here for four games each to open the season and then we’ll face Kansas as our latest non-conference homestand. It’s going to be nice for our guys to play some tough competition both at home and with a couple of really good road trips.”
The Bulldogs will open their 2016 campaign on Feb. 19 with a four-game homestand against Butler. Samford will next host BYU for another four-game home set on Feb. 25.
In the opening two weeks of March, the Bulldogs will play eight of its first nine games on the road with contests at UAB, Louisiana-Monroe, Southern Miss and Alabama State. Last season, Samford earned a winning record when playing outside the friendly confines of Joe Lee Griffin Field.
On March 18, the Bulldogs will begin a four-game homestand against Jacksonville and Jacksonville State. Samford will face Jacksonville in a three-game series, before hosting the Gamecocks for a single test on March 22.
“We’re going to have a very challenging conference schedule this season,” Dunn said. “It’s going to be a competitive league from top to bottom and I think it’s going to be tough to truly pick a predicted order of finish in our conference. I think there will be a lot of parity this season and hopefully our preconference schedule will get us prepared for when we head to Furman for our SoCon-opening weekend.”
Samford’s SoCon play will open with a road series at Furman from March 24-26. The Bulldogs are slotted to have four road series’ this season in conference play with additional trips to Western Carolina, UNCG and The Citadel.
Key home stretches for Samford this season will occur in April. Beginning April 1 against Mercer, the Bulldogs will play seven of their first eight games at home. Along with Mercer, that stretch will feature contests against Wofford and Alabama State.
In late April, Samford will play host to Alabama A&M, Kansas and Alabama for a six-game home stretch. The Bulldogs’ final non-conference meeting of the regular season will come at home against UAB on May 10.
“Traditionally, we always make sure that we try to play as many in-state opponents as possible and we’re doing that again this year,” said Dunn. “We like those rivalries and I think it’s great for our players, as far as a consistency basis to play the same teams every year. That helps to build a little bit of tradition, especially when facing a lot of our long-time, in-state rivals.”
The 2016 SoCon Tournament will be held May 25-29, in Greenville, South Carolina, at Fluor Field at the West End. Samford has reached the championship final at the SoCon Tournament in four of the last five seasons.
“In our league, you never really know what to expect on a yearly basis,” Dunn said. “Mercer returns a lot out of their lineup, so I would assume that they will be one of the better teams in our league again, but this year is going to mark a time of a lot of transition. There has been a lot of youth in our conference, so I think a lot of teams will improve on what they were last season, because their teams are gaining experience.”
The 2016 Samford squad will return eight starters from last season’s team that compiled a 32-26 overall record and finished second in the SoCon. The Bulldogs advanced all the way to the championship game of the SoCon Tournament and finished the year with a 17-11 mark against conference opponents.
The Bulldogs return eight of their nine position players (including the designated hitter), as well as the top five hitters in the starting lineup. Samford’s lone loss from last season’s batting order proved to be senior leftfielder and six-hole hitter Brandon Powell, who started in 12 games a year ago.
Two of the Bulldogs’ three weekend starters are returning this season in senior Parker Curry and junior Jared Brasher, but Dunn’s squad will be without the efforts of All-SoCon performers Alex Ledford and Andres Gracia. Ledford paced Samford with seven wins last season, while Gracia added a team-high 10 saves.
Throughout the fall, Samford has been practicing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays beginning at 3 p.m. (CT) and each of these days has included a scrimmage. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the team has also been practicing before class in the morning and focuses on fundamentals.
The Bulldogs’ fall practice schedule will culminate with a special Halloween scrimmage to be held Friday, Oct. 30, where the players will compete in their favorite costumes.
2016 Samford Baseball Schedule
