INDIANAPOLIS — Visits from BIG EAST foes Georgetown, Xavier and Seton Hall as well as four games against teams from the Big Ten Conference highlight the 2016 Butler baseball schedule. Head Coach Steve Farley unveiled the 2016 slate on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
“To better prepare us for the rugged 18-game BIG EAST conference schedule, we have put together a very ambitious non-conference schedule in 2016,” Head Coach Steve Farley said. “We’ve lined up games against Division I opponents from 10 different DI conferences, including the ACC, Big Ten, Missouri Valley, and Atlantic-10. Our goal is to compete for the BIG EAST Championship.”
The Bulldogs, who will host 22 games at Bulldog Park in 2016, open the campaign at Samford University on Feb. 19. From there, the team will then travel to Charleston Southern University on Feb. 27 before returning to Indianapolis to face Marian for a mid-week contest.
The Bulldogs will travel to Port Charlotte, Florida on March 5 for their spring break trip. The trip includes six games in eight days, which features Northwestern, Indiana and Michigan State of the Big Ten, one game against ACC opponent Boston College, and then matchups against Central Michigan and Illinois State.
BU will host a round robin weekend of games in the final stages of March vs. Western Michigan and Bradley. Another unique weekend includes Butler’s first-ever home series vs. a Southern Conference opponent in Mercer. The Bears will visit Bulldog Park May 13-15.
Butler will open their conference schedule with a road series against Villanova beginning on April 9, and then will travel to Creighton the following weekend to play at TD Ameritrade Park, home of the College World Series, for a three-game series beginning on April 15.
After the series with Creighton, the Bulldogs will open up an eight-game home stand, which features conference series against Georgetown and Xavier. The opening game of the Xavier series will be televised on the BIG EAST Digital Network on April 29 at 3 p.m.
Butler will hit the road to take on the defending BIG EAST champs, St. John’s, on May 6, before ending their season with a three-game series against Seton Hall at Bulldog Park beginning on May 19.
Mid-week games include IPFW, Indiana, Northern Kentucky, Dayton, Miami (Ohio), Eastern Illinois and Ball State.
The Bulldogs goal for the 2016 campaign will be to make some noise in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament, which will be held at the Cal Ripken Complex this year in Aberdeen, Maryland.
Butler returns a strong nucleus of players including Tyler Houston, Jeff Schank, Chris Maranto, Drew Small, Danny Pobereyko, Chris Marras and Garrett Christman.
