BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Samford head baseball coach Casey Dunn unveiled the team’s 2017 schedule Friday as the Bulldogs’ upcoming slate features 31 home games and challenging non-conference road series’ at Florida State and Kansas. Samford will also boast home-and-home matchups with in-state foes Alabama, Auburn, UAB, Troy, Jacksonville State, Alabama State and Alabama A&M.
“I think this is a very exciting schedule,” said Dunn. “It’s definitely going to be very challenging early in the year, and it’s going to provide us with some home games early, but it also includes come challenging road trips as well. We’re excited to have home-and-home midweek games against both Alabama and Auburn this season, as well as similar matchups with UAB, Troy, Jacksonville State, Alabama State and Alabama A&M. It’s always good to have those in-state teams on the schedule.”
Samford will play a majority of its games in Birmingham this season and boasts home series’ against UNC Asheville, Indiana, Eastern Illinois and Eastern Michigan. Additionally, the Bulldogs will play host to defending Southern Conference Tournament-champion Western Carolina, The Citadel, Furman and UNCG in league action.
Last season, Samford compiled a solid 20-13 overall record at home.
“We have a very good home schedule,” Dunn said. “I’m glad that we will be able to host all of the in-state teams, together with hosting Indiana for a weekend series, which is a top-25 program. That’s definitely exciting for us and for this program, and of course, once we get into league play, it’s always a great atmosphere.”
The Bulldogs will open their 2017 campaign with a four-game homestand. On Feb. 17, Samford hosts a three-game series against UNC Asheville before welcoming Troy to Joe Lee Griffin Field for a midweek showdown on Feb. 21.
Next up, the Bulldogs will start an arduous four-game road swing against Florida State and Auburn. Samford will play in Tallahassee, Florida, at Florida State for a three-game series Feb. 24-26, before facing Auburn on Feb. 28.
“Florida State is a great atmosphere,” said Dunn. “We are very fortunate to be in the Southeast and close to a lot of very good programs and very good facilities. Tallahassee is one of the best atmospheres in college baseball and it always has been. You know that they are going to be a top-10 program year-in and year-out, and it’s going to be beneficial for our team to be able to go down there and play in front of a great fan base against a very challenging opponent.”
Samford will open the month of March with three-consecutive weekend homestands against Indiana, Eastern Illinois and Eastern Michigan. Mixed in will be midweek matchups with in-state foes Alabama State, Jacksonville State and Alabama. The Bulldogs are slated to play at the Crimson Tide on March 15.
Last season, Samford finished 1-1 against Alabama with a 3-2 victory at home on April 26. In their first trip to the Crimson Tide’s newly-refurbished Thomas-Sewell Stadium on May 17, the Bulldogs came up short in an 8-2 decision.
Samford compiled an impressive 9-3 record against in-state opponents last season and have been victorious in 13 of their last 16 outings versus teams from the state of Alabama. In total, the Bulldogs outscored their in-state foes by a count of 115-60 last season and tallied an average of 9.6 runs per matchup.
This season, Samford will close out its preconference schedule with three-game series’ against Eastern Michigan and Kansas. The three-game set on the road at Kansas will be a part of an eight-game road swing for the Bulldogs, including a period of 11 of 12 outings away from home.
“At some point in the season, you’re going to hit those road stretches,” said Dunn. “This year, you add in a trip to Kansas, which is a tough non-conference trip. We were fortunate enough to host them at our place last year and it will be a good test for us again this season. That road stretch will be challenging, but at the same time you hope early in the year your guys aren’t quite as fatigued and the excitement level to go somewhere new will be there.”
In SoCon play this season, Samford will play host to three-game weekend series’ against The Citadel, Western Carolina, Furman and UNCG. Additionally, 12 of the Bulldogs’ final 15 contests of the regular season will be held at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
“Having a long homestand at the end of the season will be huge from a fatigue standpoint,” Dunn said. “Traveling does take more out of you, especially in a bus conference like we are, where everybody is riding in buses to and from games, therefore being at home during that stretch will definitely benefit us.”
The 2017 SoCon Tournament will be held May 23-28, in Greenville, South Carolina, at Fluor Field at the West End. Samford has reached the championship final at the SoCon Tournament in four of the last six seasons.
“The majority of the SoCon this season is going to be an older league,” said Dunn. “Most teams return the bulk of their rosters from a year ago, so it’s going to be a challenge for us, which is what’s going to make our preconference season vital as we prepare for SoCon play.”
Last season, the Bulldogs finished the 2016 campaign with a 35-26 overall record. Samford advanced to the semifinal round of the SoCon Tournament for a fifth time since 2011. The Bulldogs have reached the 35-win plateau four times since the program’s inception in 1905, and all four have been achieved in the last six seasons.
Samford, which is the winningest Division I program in the state of Alabama since 2011, recently had Heath Quinn, Alex Lee and Hunter Swilling all selected in the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft.
The Bulldogs have now had 19 players taken in the MLB Draft over the last six years. Prior to this season, four Samford players were drafted in 2011, seven were taken in 2012, a pair of Bulldogs were drafted in 2013 and two were taken in 2014.
Additionally, Samford’s First-Team All-SoCon performer Parker Curry inked a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers and signee Austin Franklin, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from Paxton High School in Florida, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays with the 90th overall pick in the third round.
“The SoCon is going to be a very veteran league this season,” Dunn said. “It’s definitely the wrong year for us to be turning over our roster, because we lost so many position players from last year. We are going to be a lot of new faces on our squad this season. This is definitely going to be a tough year for that to be the case.”
Before the Bulldogs’ current historical run under the tutelage of Dunn and his staff, Samford had never had more than one player drafted in a single year in program history.
2017 Samford Baseball Schedule
