CLARKSVILLE – Six contests against Atlantic Coast Conference foes highlight Austin Peay State University’s 2017 baseball schedule presented by head coach Travis Janssen, Wednesday.
After opening the season at Raymond C. Hand Park with the Riverview Inn Governors Challenge, the Governors will travel to ACC tournament champion North Carolina State for a three-game series during Week 2 (Feb. 24-26) of the schedule. Austin Peay’s off week from Ohio Valley Conference play falls on the next-to-last weekend of the season (May 12-14) when it will travel to Notre Dame for a three-game set. It will be the Govs first contests against ACC teams since facing Georgia Tech during the 2011 NCAA Baseball Atlanta Regional.
Back to the opening weekend, Austin Peay will host its annual Riverview Inn Governors Challenge, Feb. 17-19. The Governors will host Dayton, Illinois State and Indiana State in the round-robin event at Raymond C. Hand Park.
After the trip to Raleigh, North Carolina, Austin Peay returns home for a three-game series against Mercer, March 3-5, to round out its preseason nonconference weekends. It begins OVC play in earnest the following weekend when it hosts Jacksonville State, March 10-12.
The home conference weekend against Jacksonville State is one of five on the schedule in 2017. The Govs also will host Tennessee Tech (March 24-26), Belmont (April 7-9), Morehead State (April 21-23) and SIUE (May 5-7). Austin Peay will host four of the six teams, besides itself, that qualified for last season’s OVC Baseball Championship.
The lone OVC Baseball Championship qualifier the Govs will face on the road is Southeast Missouri, the defending regular-season and tournament champion. Austin Peay and Southeast Missouri will face each other March 31-April 2 at a refurbished Capaha Field in Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Austin Peay’s first OVC road trip is its March 17-19 series at Murray State, which is a part of the Heritage Bank Battle of the Border. The trip to Southeast Missouri follows then the Govs will face Eastern Kentucky (April 13-15), UT Martin (April 28-30). The 2017 regular season will end when Austin Peay travels to Eastern Illinois, May 18-20.
Outside of the weekend schedule, the Govs have a full slate of midweek contests scheduled, highlighted by its March 15 contest at Tennessee in Knoxville. The game will renew a series that took a hiatus during the 2016 season due to a scheduling conflict.
In addition, the Govs will host home-and-home midweek sets with Evansville, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee, and Southern Illinois. Austin Peay also will host Arkansas State in a two-game home midweek set, March 21-22.
Austin Peay’s 55-game regular season slate should have it prepared for the 2017 OVC Baseball Championship which will change locations for the first time since 2010. In August, the OVC announced the championship would move to Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama, for the 2017and 2018 editions.
