NIU
DEKALB – The NIU baseball team announced its 2017 schedule Wednesday with a return trip to Camelback Ranch in Phoenix, Ariz., the spring training home of the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, trips to Oklahoma, Illinois, Michigan and Notre Dame along with hosting NCAA Regional qualifier Minnesota.
For the third time in four seasons, the Huskies will open their season at Camelback Ranch as they will play four games total against Chicago State and South Dakota State Feb. 17-19.
“We’re excited to work with the White Sox organization again this year as we open up our season at Camelback Ranch,” Head Coach Mike Kunigonis said. “I’m looking forward to opening our season against two quality opponents with in-state rival Chicago St and South Dakota State.”
NIU will then travel to Norman, Okla. for a weekend four-team tournament with Oklahoma, Boston College and Villanova on Feb. 24-26. The Huskies will stay on the road through most of March playing Big Ten opponents in Iowa (March 7), Illinois (March 15), Notre Dame (March 21) out of the ACC and in-state foe UIC (March 28) in mid-week games.
The Huskies will also play weekend series against three non-conference opponents in SIU-Edwardsville (March 3-5) for four games, St. Louis (March 10-12) for three games and Michigan (March 17-19) for four games before opening Mid-American Conference play on the road at Toledo (March 24-26).
“This year’s schedule is filled with high quality opponents and will be a great test for our team,” Kunigonis said.
The first game of the season for NIU at Ralph McKinzie Field will be on March 31 as they host Bowling Green for a weekend three-game series in MAC play. Other MAC opponents that will travel to DeKalb for weekend series this season will be Kent State (April 14-16), Ball State (April 28-30) and Eastern Michigan (May 12-14).
The Huskies will play mid-week home games against Milwaukee (April. 4), UIC (April 11) and Minnesota (April 25) during the conference season along with traveling to Indiana State (April 18), Valparaiso (May 2) and Milwaukee (May 16).
The rest of the MAC road schedule for NIU includes Buffalo (April 7-9), Central Michigan (May 5-7) and the last series of season for the Huskies at Miami (Ohio) on May 18-19. NIU will also play a non-conference series against Evansville on April 21-23.
“I can’t wait for this upcoming season,” Kunigonis said. “We have a very talented group and I am excited to see what they are capable of.”
The Huskies are coming off of a 24-32 campaign in 2016 with a 14-10 record in conference, good enough for second in the MAC West, one game behind Ball State.
