MURFREESBORO – Head Coach Jim McGuire and the Middle Tennessee baseball program announced the 2016 schedule Friday, which will feature 30 games at Reese Smith Jr. Field.
The Blue Raiders will look to overcome a difficult schedule that includes 13 games against 2015 NCAA Tournament teams.
“I think it’s one of the most difficult schedules we’ve had, maybe ever, but definitely in a long time,” McGuire stated. “It’s a great RPI schedule. It’s setup so that if we have success in the league but then also take care of some games outside of the conference, we’ll put ourselves in position for an at-large bid, and that’s where we want to be every year.”
The schedule opens with a seven-game homestand, which is sure to help ease a young team with many new faces in the lineup into the season.
“Playing at home early, where we’re going to be comfortable before being challenged on the road, is going to be very important for us,” McGuire added. “Being able to get these guys some experience before we go on the road and before we start conference play is going to be really important for this team.”
Opening weekend (Feb. 19-21) will feature an Indiana team that has been to three consecutive NCAA Regionals and made it to the College World Series in 2013. The Hoosiers won 36 games last season before bowing out in the Vanderbilt Regional.
“It’s a lot for us to bite off at the beginning of the season,” McGuire said. “They’re going to be picked at the top part of the Big Ten if not picked to win it, so it’ll be an unbelievable challenge for us to start with, but what a great way to open the year to bring a team like Indiana in here. Everybody knows who they are and the success they’ve had, so I think opening weekend is going to be a lot of fun.”
The Raiders will host Army, Western Michigan and Miami (OH) at the Mule Mix Classic (Feb. 25-27) sandwiched between two midweek games with Lipscomb (Feb. 21 and March 1). The team will then take its first weekend road trip to Mobile, Ala., to take on former Sun Belt foe South Alabama (March 4-6).
“I’m excited to go back. They won the regular season in the Sun Belt so I know they’re going to be very good again,” McGuire said. “That was always such a good rivalry when we were in the league. There is a lot of great tradition in both programs during our time in the Sun Belt and even before that when we were in different leagues.”
After hosting two midweek games against Memphis (March 8-9), Middle Tennessee heads back on the road to take on Kennesaw State (March 11-13) to close out the non-conference schedule. The trip will serve as a reunion with former pitching coach Kevin Erminio, who currently holds the same position with the Owls.
“That’s a big weekend for a lot of different reasons,” McGuire stated. “It’s another example of an RPI weekend, where they are going to be one of the top teams again in the A-Sun. They won a Regional two years ago and went to a Super Regional, and were just two games away from going to the College World Series.”
The toughest stretch of the conference schedule may come early for the Blue Raiders, who will host 2015 NCAA Tournament Teams Florida Atlantic (March 18-20) and Rice (April 1-3) within the first three weekends. A road trip to rival WKU (April 25-27) will fall between those two series.
“That’s a key for us, having two of the first three conference weekends at home against two teams that went to Regionals last year,” McGuire said. “It’s difficult playing them anywhere, but at least playing them here and getting them off of their home turf will definitely help us. We’ve also got WKU on the road sandwiched between those two and being our natural rival we’ve had some tough games with them. I really like our home schedule this year and those first two home conference weekends will be big.”
Middle Tennessee will also host conference foes Charlotte (April 15-17), Marshall (April 29-May 1) and UTSA (May 19-21) in the spring while taking road trips to Southern Miss (April 8-10), UAB (April 22-24), Louisiana Tech (May 6-8) and Old Dominion (May 13-15).
Sprinkled into the conference schedule, the Blue Raiders will face all in-state opponents in the midweek with contests against Belmont (March 15 and May 17), Vanderbilt (March 22 and April 12), Tennessee (March 29 and April 19), Austin Peay (April 5 and May 10) and Tennessee Tech (April 20 and 27). The Raiders will need to improve on their midweek results from a season ago to better their chances of making a Regional in 2016.
“We can’t focus totally on the weekend if we’re going to accomplish what we want to accomplish,” McGuire added. “I feel like the pieces we’ve added and the depth in the pitching staff are really going to help us in the middle of the week.”
With a tough schedule ahead of them and so many new faces battling for playing time, McGuire will look for his team to play with consistency throughout the season in order to accomplish their goals.
“With 56 games there are so many ups and downs that go on and with a young team and a bunch of new faces and a lot of guys that haven’t played a lot before. It’s going to be a challenge to keep those guys going throughout the season. Aside from playing with consistency, our goal is the same as it is every year, which is to try to compete for the championship, to try to play at the top of the league the entire year and if we can’t win the championship we want to find a way to win an at-large bid and get into a Regional.”
Following the regular season, the Conference USA Tournament will take place on May 25-29 at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss.
