OXFORD, Ohio – Miami head baseball coach Danny Hayden has revealed a home heavy 2017 schedule.
The RedHawks have 27 home games on their spring calendar, with the regular season officially opening up on Feb. 17.
Miami begins the 2017 campaign with a three game set at Arkansas (Feb. 17-19). The Red and White also have a Feb. 24-26 series at South Florida to conclude the opening month schedule.
“We are really excited to get to work this fall,” Hayden said. “I’m glad the season does not start tomorrow because we have a lot to get accomplished. With that said, I am extremely confident that our guys will be ready when we take on Arkansas on February 17th. One of the great things about our schedule this year is that we have almost doubled the amount of home games we will be playing. We have a beautiful stadium and it will be nice to play in it 27 times this year. Our schedule has some great opponents this season and we are excited and ready for the competition.”
The home schedule begins and kicks off the March slate as MU plays host to Illinois State (March 3-5). That series with the Redbirds accounts for three of the 12 games scheduled at McKie Field at Hayden Park that month, which also sees the RedHawks host Dayton (March 14), East Tennessee State (March 17-19), Northern Kentucky (March 22), the Mid-American Conference opening series with defending MAC Tournament champion Western Michigan (March 24-26) and Xavier (March 29). That month also features trips to Kentucky (March 10-12), Cincinnati (March 15) and Northern Kentucky (March 28).
March bleeds into April with a MAC series at Central Michigan (March 31-April 2). After hosting Cincinnati (April 4) and going to Xavier (April 5), the Red and White host back-to-back weekend series against MAC foe Eastern Michigan (April 7-9) and a non-league set against La Salle (April 14-16). Aside from a home game against Morehead State (April 25), Miami will spend the rest of April on the road traveling to the Joe Nuxhall Classic in Cincinnati (April 18-19), Ohio (April 21-23), Dayton (April 26) and Bowling Green (April 28-30).
Seven of Miami’s final 10 games are at home as May features a midweek battle against Butler (May 3), and MAC series against Buffalo (May 5-7), at Kent State (May 12-14) and the regular season finale against Northern Illinois (May 18-20).
The top eight teams in the final MAC standings move on to the MAC Tournament at All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, Ohio (May 24-28). Miami went 27-29 in 2016 while finishing third in the MAC standings with a 14-10 conference record.
