HIGH POINT, N.C. – The High Point University baseball team released its 53-game schedule for the 2018 season on Thursday, featuring matchups against five NCAA tournament teams from a year ago and a full 27-game Big South slate.
“The 2018 schedule should prove to be another exciting slate for our fans and a challenge for this year’s club,” head coach Craig Cozart said. “We start off the season by welcoming a new opponent in James Madison University that kicks off the very stout non-conference portion of our schedule. Series against Dayton and on the road at William & Mary as well as the Coastal Carolina Invitational will prepare us well for our run at the Big South Conference championship.”
The 2018 schedule features 24 games at Vert Stadium and contests against opponents from the ACC, Big 10, CAA, A-10, C-USA, Sun Belt, SoCon, MEAC, and MAC. The Panthers will play 21 games against teams from the state of North Carolina, including five home-and-home non-conference matchups.
The Purple & White open the season with six of the first seven games at home. HPU welcomes James Madison for a three-game set from Feb. 16-18 to begin the year and hosts Dayton the following weekend, Feb. 23-25.
High Point will travel to battle William & Mary from Mar. 2-4 and take part in the Coastal Carolina Invitational in Conway, S.C. from Mar. 9-11. HPU will play two games against Ohio State on Friday and Saturday as well as a pair of contests against the host Chanticleers on Friday and Sunday.
Additionally, HPU will play non-conference home-and-home series with North Carolina A&T (Feb. 21 and Apr. 25), Charlotte (Mar. 6 and Apr. 17), defending SoCon champion UNCG (Mar. 27 and Apr. 10), Elon (Apr. 3 and Apr. 24) and Wake Forest (May 1 and May 15), a team that advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals in 2017.
High Point will also travel to 2017 ACC champion North Carolina (Feb. 27) and NC Central (Mar. 21) and host defending MAC champion Ohio (Mar. 13) in non-conference action.
The Big South portion of the slate will feature nine conference series for the first time since 2014. As a result, High Point will play every team in the conference for the first time since 2011.
The Panthers open league play at Longwood (Mar. 16-18) before retuning home on consecutive weekends to take on 2017 tournament champion Radford (Mar. 23-25) and defending regular season champion Winthrop (Mar. 29-31). High Point will travel to Charleston Southern (Apr. 6-8) and Gardner-Webb (Apr. 13-15) before welcoming Liberty (Apr. 20-22) for a three-game set.
After a weekend off for exams at the end of April, the Panthers will visit Campbell (May 4-6) and UNC Asheville (May 11-13) before completing the regular season at home against Presbyterian (May 17-19).
The Big South Baseball Championship is scheduled for May 22-26.
“Our team is having a great fall thus far and with the talent we have on this year’s roster, we couldn’t be more excited for the spring,” Cozart said.
