RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech head coach Greg Goff has announced the 2016 Bulldog Baseball schedule which features a balanced 56-game slate with 28 home games set to be played at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in Ruston.
The 2016 schedule features a season-opening tournament in New Orleans, 13 three-game weekend series and a total of 14 midweek games over the course of nearly four months.
“We are excited for the season to get here and compete against some of the best teams in this part of the country,” head coach Greg Goff said of the 2016 schedule. “It will be nice to renew some in-state series against teams from this region and we are also looking forward to welcoming some good teams to J.C. Love Field in 2016.”
“We know we have a challenging non-conference schedule ahead of us, but that will hopefully prepare us to face some of the best teams in the country once Conference USA play comes around.”
The season begins with LA Tech traveling to the Big Easy to compete in the ninth annual Major League Baseball Urban Youth Invitational hosted by the New Orleans Privateers at Maestri Field from Feb. 19-21. The three-day tournament is part of the MLB Urban Youth Academy whose purpose is to push more urban children into baseball and ultimately into college.
Over the course of opening weekend, the Bulldogs will feature in three games against Southern (2/19), Grambling State (2/20) and New Orleans (2/21). LA Tech’s game against Grambling at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 20 will be nationally televised live on MLB Network. Teams such as LSU, UCLA, UC-Irvine and San Diego State have competed in the Urban Youth Invitational in years past.
Following the MLB Urban Youth Invitational, Louisiana Tech returns to Ruston to play eight of its next nine games at home, including weekend series against UT Arlington (Feb. 26-28) and Valparaiso (March 4-6). Midweek games against UALR and UL-Lafayette are also scheduled in that home stretch, while LA Tech will also travel to face Arkansas Wednesday, March 2 at Baum Stadium in Fayetteville.
For the first time in 17 years, Louisiana Tech will make the three and a half hour trip south to Baton Rouge to battle the LSU Tigers Tuesday, March 8 at Alex Box Stadium in what will be the first meeting between the two teams since 1998.
In addition to LA Tech’s matchup with the Tigers, the Bulldogs have also scheduled a home-and-home series with UL-Lafayette. The Ragin’ Cajuns make the trip to Ruston Feb. 24 for a midweek contest against the Bulldogs before Tech travels to Lafayette later in the season on April 27. It will mark the first meetings between the two teams since the 2008 season.
On March 11, Louisiana Tech will begin a three-game road series against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders in Corpus Christi, Texas. Last season, the Islanders traveled to Ruston where the Bulldogs won two games before the series finale was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Following that road trip, Tech will host Alcorn State in midweek action before stepping into Conference USA play with a three-game series at UAB on March 18-20 in Birmingham. LA Tech will play three of its first four C-USA series on the road as the Bulldogs host Charlotte in league play in a Thursday-Saturday series on Easter weekend (March 24-26) before Tech hits the road once again for two straight road series at Marshall (April 1-3) and WKU (April 8-10).
For the second year in a row, LA Tech and ULM will play a home-and-home series with the Bulldogs traveling to face the Warhawks on March 22 before ULM returns the favor on May 4 in Ruston. LA Tech swept ULM last season with a pair of one-run victories over the Warhawks, one in Ruston and the other taking place in Monroe.
After playing three of its first four conference series on the road, LA Tech will have the opportunity to play 14 of its last 22 games in the confines of J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in Ruston. The Bulldogs will host FIU (April 15-17) and Old Dominion (April 22-24) in back-to-back weekend series with a midweek home game against Northwestern (April 19) squeezed between those two league matchups. That seven-game stretch is the longest home stand of the season for the Bulldogs.
Tech is set to travel to San Antonio to take on UTSA on the last weekend in April before returning home to host ULM in midweek play and Middle Tennessee in a three-game C-USA series beginning May 6.
The last road trip of the season will feature a game at Brown-Stroud Field in Natchitoches against the Northwestern State Demons on May 10 before Tech travels to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to face Southern Miss in a three-game league series on May 13-15.
The Bulldogs are set to close out the regular season by hosting the Rice Owls in a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series on May 19-21 at J.C. Love Field at Pat Patterson Park in Ruston.
LA Tech will play a total of 10 Conference USA series in 2016 with the Bulldogs hosting five of those against Charlotte, FIU, Old Dominion, Middle Tennessee and Rice.
In a breakdown of the 2016 schedule, LA Tech is set to play eight games in February, 18 games in both March and April, and close out the regular season with 12 games slated for the month of May.
The Bulldogs will play 14 midweek games against nine different opponents with six of those matchups coming against in-state schools, including LSU, ULL, ULM, Grambling, McNeese State and Northwestern State.
The 2016 Conference USA Baseball Championship will be hosted by Southern Miss at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for the third consecutive year and will run from May 25-29.
2016 LA Tech Baseball Schedule (PDF)
