MANHATTAN, Kan. – Thirty-three home games and a mid-week game played at Kaufmann Stadium headline the 2017 Kansas State baseball schedule as head coach Brad Hill announced the entire 56-game slate. K-State’s season will officially get underway on February 17 at the Dodgertown Classic in Vero Beach, Florida.
The home slate features Creighton, Iowa, New Mexico, Wichita State, Oklahoma, TCU and Texas Tech with the home opener to be played on Friday, March 3 against Eastern Illinois. K-State will play Arkansas at Kaufmann Stadium on Tuesday, April 25. The 33 home games are the most since 2013.
The Wildcats’ upcoming campaign features 25 opponents and runs from February 17-May 20. Seven opponents competed in NCAA postseason play last year while three conference foes (Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech) advanced to the College World Series in Omaha.
“The schedule is tough, no doubt about it,” said Hill. “We open on the road for 10 days in Florida and South Carolina and it doesn’t get any easier when we get home. Our guys are going to have to be ready from the get-go. Our veteran guys know what to expect but the newcomers are going to have to jump right in and contribute. The great thing about playing in this conference is it challenges you every day you go out there.”
A 10-day road trip to Florida and South Carolina begins at the Dodgertown Classic in Vero Beach with four games against Delaware, Pittsburgh and Ohio State. The season will kick off on February 17 against the Buckeyes in the Sunshine State. K-State will then head north to Columbia, South Carolina, to square off with South Carolina, St. John’s and Liberty. Ohio State and South Carolina each qualified for the NCAA postseason a year ago, with the Gamecocks reaching the Columbia Super Regional.
Following the eight-game, 10-day trip, the Wildcats open their 33-game home schedule with 14 straight home games stretching from March 3-21. Featured in the home stand are weekend series with Eastern Illinois, UC Riverside and Iowa and mid-week games against Northwestern State, Creighton and Omaha.
“We have a nice homestand in March with three consecutive non-conference weekends in Manhattan before opening another competitive season of Big 12 play,” added Hill. “We are always excited to play in front of our great fans at Tointon Family Stadium where we have ranked in top-32 nationally in attendance the last four years.”
The Cats ends the month of March with the start of Big 12 play at Texas (March 24-27) before a mid-week game at Nebraska. The game with the Cornhuskers begins a stretch of 13 consecutive games against NCAA postseason teams, nine of which will be played at Tointon Family Stadium, beginning with the first home league series with Big 12 tournament champion TCU (March 31-April 2).
After a three-game series at Oklahoma State (April 7-9), the April 25 game at Kaufmann will be the only game played away from Tointon Family Stadium in nearly a month (16 of 17 games). The stretch includes weekend Big 12 series (April 13-15) with Texas Tech, the regular-season Big 12 champion, West Virginia (April 21-23) and Oklahoma (May 5-7). K-State will host non-conference games with Nebraska, New Mexico, Abilene Christian and Wichita State in that span.
K-State’s final seven games will be played on the road, featuring league series with KU played May 12-14 and Baylor played May 18-20 with a mid-week game at Wichita State on May 16.
The Wildcats have previously faced 24 of its 25 opponents in school history as South Carolina is the only opponent K-State has never played.
The 2017 Big 12 Baseball Championship is set for May 26-28, 2017 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, the tournament’s host site for 16 of the 20 years. In 2016, K-State made its ninth trip over the last 10 seasons to the postseason tournament.
2017 Kansas State Baseball Schedule
