ATLANTA – The 2017 Georgia State baseball team will face perhaps the most challenging schedule in school history, as announced Thursday by head coach Greg Frady.
The 2017 slate includes four different Power Five opponents and 13 games against 2016 NCAA Tournament teams, including a home series with Coastal Carolina, the defending national champions and the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference.
“We’ve always played a good schedule, but I really think this will be the most challenging schedule we played in my 11 years,” said Frady, Georgia State’s career leader in victories. “You start with the Sun Belt, which has always been very good, but now you add Coastal Carolina, and oh, by the way, they just won the national championship.
“In the non-conference, our in-state rivals Georgia Tech, Kennesaw State and Mercer are always good, and this year we’ve added series at Ole Miss and at Minnesota, plus Oklahoma at home,” Frady continued. “We will face some strong teams in our two tournaments, and we will be away from home two of the first four weekends.”
Georgia State opens the 2017 season on Friday, Feb. 17, when the Panthers host Marshall at the GSU Baseball Complex in the opening game of the third annual Atlanta Challenge. The field also includes 2016 NCAA Tournament team Western Michigan and BYU. The three visiting teams play one game each at Georgia State, Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State.
Sun Belt play opens March 17, when the Panthers open a three-game home series against UT Arlington, and two weeks later, NCAA champion Coastal Carolina visits the GSU Baseball Complex.
The 56-game slate includes 28 home dates at the GSU Baseball Complex, 25 road tests and one neutral-site weekend at the LakePoint Sporting Community in Emerson, Ga., just north of Atlanta.
