SAN DIEGO, Calif. – University of San Diego head baseball coach Rich Hill announced the 2016 Torero schedule on Monday. The season starts with three games against College World Series runner-up Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. Feb. 19-21.
“High risk high reward!” Hill said of his teams’ schedule. “Extremely challenging non-conference schedule to prepare us for the rigors of the WCC and a run in the NCAA tournament.”
After the season-opening road-trip, the team will play a neutral site game in Lake Elsinore against cross-town rival San Diego State University. The two teams will then co-host the inaugural Tony Gwynn Memorial Classic. One of the nations premiere tournaments will showcase USD, SDSU, Nebraska, Arizona, Tulane, Kentucky, Bryant and UC Santa Barbara. The Toreros first game of the tourney will come against Nebraska on Feb. 26. In the second round they will face Tulane or Arizona.
Tulane, SDSU and Vanderbilt are three of the seven teams USD will face this season that participated in last years post-season. Oregon State will travel to Fowler Park for three games Mar. 4-6. USD will travel to face conference foe Pepperdine (Mar. 24-26) and Oregon (May 2). USD will play a home-and-home against Arizona State, first in Tempe, Ariz. Mar. 22 and then in San Diego May 18.
West Coast Conference action will begin on Friday March 18 when the Toreros host Saint Mary’s in Fowler Park. USD looks to defend their regular season conference championship as they also host Loyola Marymount (Apr. 1-3), Santa Clara (Apr. 15-17), and finish the season at home against Gonzaga (May 19-21). Pepperdine, BYU (Apr. 7-9), University of San Francisco (Apr. 22-24) and University of the Pacific (May 14-15) will make up the Toreros conference road-schedule.
Other highlights include a road-trip to Waco, Tex. to face the Baylor Bears on Mar. 12-13 and a trip to Cal-State Fullerton on Apr. 5. UC Irvine will travel to San Diego for a 6 p.m. game on Mar. 29 before USD makes the trip up to Irvine on May 10.
The WCC tournament will be held in Stockton, Calif. at Banner Island Ballpark from May 26-28.
