Hartford baseball coach Justin Blood announced a 54-game schedule for his upcoming fifth season at the helm of the Hawks in 2016. The schedule includes 45 dates, highlighted by 13 games against RPI Top 100 teams and 10 games against 2015 NCAA Tournament teams.
“We feel this schedule offers our student-athletes a great opportunity to experience different areas of the country while competing against very talented programs,” Blood said.
The schedule includes opponents from 11 different conferences that the Hawks will face this season, including the Big East, American Athletics Conference, Ivy League, and the Atlantic-10.
The Hawks will head south to begin their season with 10 straight road games, including six against Radford and UC Santa Barbara, both of which played in 2015 NCAA Tournament. Hartford also plays a three-game series at North Florida (Feb. 26-28) with a game at Central Connecticut (March 9) sandwiched in the middle of the season-opening trip.
“Our early non-conference portion of the schedule will definitely test us,” continued Blood. “Trips to North Florida, Radford and UC Santa Barbara will get us ready for America East play.”
Blood’s squad opens play at Fiondella Field against UMass on Wednesday, March 16, and follows that with a three-game series (March 19-20) that includes a doubleheader over the weekend against Albany to open America East play. The Hawks finished 10-12 in the conference in 2015.
The team will look to continue last season’s success on the road in conference games (6-2 away from Fiondella) during treks to UMass Lowell, Binghamton, Albany, and UMBC over the course of the spring.
Stony Brook comes to town for a three-game showdown (Mar. 9-10) bringing with them an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2015. The Seawolves beat Sacred Heart in the NCAA Regional before being eliminated by College World Series participant TCU.
In the remaining non-conference schedule, the Hawks will take on the likes of Fairfield, Bryant, Villanova, Holy Cross, and Yale in March, Sacred Heart, UConn, Quinnipiac, Marist, URI, and Northeastern in April, and Army and CCSU in May.
The Hawks earned their second-straight berth in the America East Tournament in 2015 under Blood’s guidance, advancing to the final day of play. Hartford returns 23 letterwinners from the 2015 squad, including all-conference selections Kyle Gauthier, David MacKinnon and Ben Bengston.
2016 Hartford Baseball Schedule
