HAMMOND, La. – Multiple games against national runner-up LSU, including one at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field, and matchups with Super Regional participants Mississippi State and Sam Houston State highlight a challenging 2018 Southeastern Louisiana baseball schedule, head coach Matt Riser announced Monday.
Among their 11 games against Regional competition, the Lions will also host Houston, South Alabama and Southern Miss.
“We’re extremely excited about this schedule with 31 home games,” Riser said. “We’ve seen the benefits of having a challenging schedule the last two years, continuing to raise our RPI. This year we get to do it at home as opposed to on the road.”
Southeastern opens the season with nine consecutive home games, welcoming SIU-Edwardsville (Feb. 16-18), Alcorn State (Feb. 20), UL Lafayette (Feb. 21), UConn (Feb. 23-25) and LSU (Feb. 28) to Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
The Lions then head to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for a round-robin event, facing Sacred Heart (March 2), Toledo (March 3) and host LSU (March 4) at Alex Box Stadium. Before returning north, Toledo travels to Hammond to face Southeastern (March 6) again.
“We’re very thankful to Coach [Paul] Mainieri, for coming over here to our place and for what he’s doing in state for the game of baseball,” Riser said. “We’re also very fortunate to get in their tournament as well. We had a late cancellation and he was very accommodating, allowing us to jump in the tournament there. Getting a second game against LSU is going to be huge for our RPI.”
After a trip to Tulane (March 7), Southeastern opens Southland Conference play against New Orleans. The first two games of the conference series will be played at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field and the finale will be played on the lakefront in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Southeastern hosts another opponent from the Midwest when Purdue (March 13) comes to town. Following the contest with the Boilermakers, the Lions leave the state for the first time as they embark on the first of two six-game road trips on the schedule.
Kicking off the road trip is a matchup with Super Regional participant Mississippi State at MGM Park in Biloxi, Mississippi. The rest of the road trip includes stops at Lamar (March 16-18), Regional participant South Alabama (March 20) and Jackson State (March 21).
Other key home games for the Lions in 2018 include non-conference matchups with Tulane (March 27), Jackson State (April 10), Regional host Southern Miss (April 18), South Alabama (May 15) and Regional host Houston (May 17-18). Southland home series include HBU (March 23-25), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (April 6-8), Nicholls (April 20-21) and Stephen F. Austin (April 27-29).
“We’re very fortunate to get to get a pair of quality teams here for weekend series in UConn and Houston,” Riser said. “They have a history of tremendous baseball in their programs. We matched up with Houston in a regional a few years ago in Baton Rouge. They’ve made the Super Regionals within the last couple years and UConn made a Super Regional push a couple years ago as well.”
The Lions, who finished the 2017 season with the highest RPI in the history of the Southland Conference (30), will play 21 games against teams that finished in the RPI Top-100 last season.
“Our out of conference schedule last year had a lot of Sun Belt competition, this season there is a lot of American Athletic Conference,” Riser said. “I think they’re one of the best in the country.”
That level of competition allowed Southeastern to once again establish a school record in attendance, with more than 32,000 (1,210 per game average) attending games at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field during the 2017 season.
“We continue to improve our facility, making it one of the tops in the conference and in the region,” Riser said. “Our fans do a fantastic job of creating an atmosphere that is similar to the Power 5 conferences. Schools are willing to come here knowing they will get great competition, a great atmosphere and a great game. It goes a long way for their RPI as well.”
In 2018, the Lions will play 31 of their 56 regular season games inside the friendly confines of The Pat. Season tickets will go on sale in January.
2018 Southeastern Louisiana Schedule
