TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –The University of Alabama baseball team officially announced the finalized schedule for the 2016 Crimson Tide season on Friday morning. Tickets for all 32 games at the new Sewell-Thomas Stadium also go on sale today. . Information on all the new options for current season ticket holders is currently in the mail, while information for those wishing to purchase season tickets will be made available in the coming days.
Alabama is coming off a season in which the Tide was forced to play their home games at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium due to the ongoing construction at the stadium. Despite being away from home, the Tide posted a 32-28 record and managed to make their deepest run in the SEC Tournament since 2010.
The new Sewell-Thomas Stadium is set for completion by opening day, and will provide Alabama baseball fans with an experience unlike anything they have been a part of in the past. The new stadium will feature a brand-new seating arrangement after the field was rotated for better sight lines. Fans will notice 12 state-of-the-art suites and two club seating areas circling the upper concourse, and improved seating and berm areas around the lower bowl.
Fans can take advantage of the new stadium and all its amenities when the Crimson Tide begins the season at home for seven consecutive matchups, first starting on Feb. 19 with a three-game series against the University of Maryland. The Tide will follow that series with a single midweek game against Nicholls State on Feb. 24, and then a three-game series against North Dakota from Feb. 26-28
The Tide’s first road trip will be to Troy, Ala., to take on the Trojans on Tuesday, March 1, before heading to Cary, N.C. to play in the prestigious USA Baseball-Irish Classic from March 4-6. While splitting time between the USA Baseball National Training Complex and Doak Field, Alabama will face off with Notre Dame, N.C. State, Bucknell, Brown and Niagara.
Alabama returns home to play a single game with Oregon on Thursday, March 10, before concluding its weekend out-of-conference play, hosting the Houston Cougars. Southern Miss will head to Tuscaloosa on Tuesday, March 15 before the Crimson Tide begins its Southeastern Conference slate on the road in Baton Rouge against the LSU Tigers from March 18-20.
Regions Field will once again host the initial road matchup for the Tide against UAB on March 22. Following the quick trip to Birmingham, Tuscaloosa will welcome the Tennessee Volunteers from March 25-27 for the first SEC home series at The New Joe.
Alabama and Auburn will meet for the annual MAX Capital City Classic in a non-conference game at Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery on March 29, before the Tide heads to Athens for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series with the Georgia Bulldogs from March 31-April 2. The Thursday matchup will air live on the SEC Network. UA will head back home for a quick stop at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on April 5-6 as the Tide hosts Alcorn State.
A road trip to Kentucky follows from April 8-10, before UAB visits Tuscaloosa for the second game of a home-and-home on April 12. The matchup with the Blazers will kickstart a series of seven consecutive home games that includes: Samford (April 13), Ole Miss (April 15-17), Troy (April 19) and South Alabama (April 20). The weekend series with Ole Miss will fall on the same weekend as Alabama football’s annual A-Day Weekend.
The Crimson Tide will next hit the road to College Station to face off with Texas A&M from April 22-24 before traveling to Birmingham for the second of a two-game set with Samford on Tuesday, April 26. Mississippi State comes to town for the Tide’s second Thursday-Friday-Saturday series of the season from April 28-30. The first game of the three-game set will air on SEC Network.
A midweek break then awaits the Tide before welcoming the rival Auburn Tigers to Tuscaloosa from May 6-8. Another open week follows the matchup with AU before a trip to Fayetteville to face off with the Arkansas Razorbacks from May 13-15. The Crimson Tide will close out its first season inside its new home with the final series of the season, a three-game set from Thursday-Saturday against the South Carolina Gamecocks.
For 2016, Alabama will not have regular-season SEC contests with Florida, Missouri and Vanderbilt. The SEC Baseball Tournament will once again be held in Hoover, Ala., at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The 12-team tournament will begin on Monday, May 23, and run through Sunday, May 29.
2016 Alabama Baseball Schedule
