UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State baseball head coach Rob Cooper announced the team’s 2016 schedule Thursday, which includes a three-game series against college baseball power TCU at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park, as well as regional matchups and a competitive Big Ten slate.
The Nittany Lions are scheduled to host six weekend series and eight midweek games for a total of 26 home dates. Season tickets and reserved seats for the TCU series May 6-8 are on sale now by calling the Medlar Field at Lubrano Park ticket office at 814-272-1711.
“I’m really excited, first of all, that the Big Ten is coming off its best season ever as far as teams going to the [NCAA] Regionals,” said Cooper. “Our in-conference schedule is going to be amazing.
“Then being able to play TCU at home, a team that’s been to the College World Series, and South Carolina, being able to go there and play, it’s another challenging year for us.”
TCU will be one of the most formidable opponents to ever visit Medlar. The Horned Frogs have reached the NCAA College World Series in each of the past two seasons and three times in the past five seasons.
“When you have a team like TCU that’s willing to go on the road and have the opportunity to try and get RPI points, it speaks to the overall strength of our conference,” said Cooper. “Ten years ago, you wouldn’t have seen that. It would have been us going to play them. It’s a good thing for college baseball when teams from all over the country are willing to go to different places because it makes for great matchups, great rivalries and just really helps grow our sport.”
In total, Penn State will compete against five teams coming off NCAA Tournament appearances in 2015, traveling to UNC-Wilmington (Mar. 5-7) and Illinois (Mar. 25-27) and also hosting Maryland (Apr. 29-May 1) and Iowa (May 19-21). Illinois and Maryland both reached the Super Regionals. The Nittany Lions are slated to play a total of 10 games against schools from the Big 12, SEC and ACC.
All dates, times and opponents are subject to change.
The 2015-16 Nittany Lions welcome 12 freshmen to a team that returns five players to its starting lineup and its entire weekend pitching rotation. The team has had a busier than usual fall, as it earned a 5-0 exhibition win over Lock Haven Oct. 2 and will restart practice Saturday in preparation for a trip to Cuba Nov.21-29. As per NCAA rules, the Nittany Lions will get 10 practice days in preparation for the trip. In Cuba, they are scheduled to play four games against Cuban National Series teams Industriales (Nov. 22, 25) Pinar Del Rio (Nov. 27) and Matanzas (Nov. 28).
The first 14 games of the regular season will be played away from home, and the first 11 of those games will be played in the Carolinas. Penn State will open the season by hosting a four-team tournament at the USA Baseball Complex in Cary, North Carolina, Feb. 19-21. The Nittany Lions will first play Monmouth Friday (Feb. 19), play a doubleheader against Army West Point Saturday and conclude the weekend against Bryant Sunday.
The next weekend, Penn State will visit the University of South Carolina for the second consecutive season. The Gamecocks hosted the Lions in a two-game midweek series last year, but will host the Lions in a three-game weekend series (Feb. 26-28) this season.
Penn State’s annual spring break trip will start with a three-game series at UNC-Wilmington (Saturday-Monday, Mar. 5-7), and then the Lions will play Duke in Durham Bulls Athletic Park midweek before heading back north to play in a tournament at Richmond, Mar. 11-13.
The home slate begins the following weekend with a three-game series against Niagara (Mar. 18-20) and a pair of midweek games against West Virginia (Mar. 22) and Rhode Island (Mar. 23).
The Nittany Lions open Big Ten play the following weekend at defending regular season conference champion Illinois (Mar. 25-27) before returning to Happy Valley for a stretch of 10 out of 11 games at home. It will include conference series against Purdue (Apr. 1-3) and Michigan State (Apr. 8-10) and the first game of a home-and-home series against Pittsburgh (Apr. 5).
Penn State will then play seven of the next eight games on the road before returning for a seven-game homestand that will open with the conclusion of a home-and-home series against Kent State (Apr. 27) and continue with the Maryland and TCU series.
The Lions are scheduled to conclude the Pitt series in Pittsburgh May 11, travel west for a three-game series at Nebraska and visit Villanova May 17 before concluding the regular season at home against Iowa (May 19-21).
Penn State will be seeking to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, which will be held at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska, the annual site of the College World Series.
