STORRS, Conn. – On Tuesday, UConn baseball head coach Jim Penders announced the Huskies’ 2018 schedule. The 56-game slate includes 24 American Athletic Conference contests and 19 home games currently scheduled at J.O. Christian Field in Storrs.
The Huskies are coming off a 33-win season that included a third place finish in the American Athletic Conference with 14 conference wins. The Huskies narrowly missed the NCAA Tournament with an impressive resume of Top-100 wins and strength of schedule.
UConn will face another challenging schedule in 2018, playing 30 games against 13 programs (13) that finished 2017 in the Top-100 of the RPI. Additionally, the Huskies face eight teams that reached the 2017 NCAA Tournament.
The Huskies open the season in Georgia with the season opener on February 16 at Kennesaw State before a pair of games in Atlanta against Georgia State and Georgia Tech. The Huskies return to Kennesaw after defeating the No. 21 Owls in a series in 2015. UConn plays its first game in program history against Georgia State before a 2016 Gainesville Regional rematch against perennial power, Georgia Tech.
The following weekend (February 23-25), the Huskies head to Hammond, La. to face Southeastern Louisiana. The Lions have reached the NCAA Tournament three of the past four years, receiving at-large bids the past two seasons.
The month of March begins in Jacksonville, Fla. against North Florida on March 2-4. The last meeting between the two programs came in Penders’ first season as head coach in 2004, an 8-5 UConn victory.
The first home game of the season comes against 2017 Corvallis Regional Finalist Yale on March 7 at 3:00 p.m. at J.O. Christian Field.
UConn then heads out on its annual spring break trip playing eight games from March 9-18. The Huskies open the trip in Charleston, S.C. against The Citadel with a four-game tilt. The Huskies play the Bulldogs for the first time since 1999 and hold an all-time record of 2-4.
On March 13, the Huskies face 2016 National Champion Coastal Carolina at Spring Brooks Stadium. The Huskies and Chanticleers have played three times previously including twice in the 2011 Clemson Regional.
UConn will renew an old Big East rivalry on March 16-18 when the Huskies take on St. John’s. The Huskies and Johnnies have not met on the diamond since 2013. The first two games of the three-game series will be played in Jamaica, N.Y. and the series finale at J.O. Christian Field.
The Huskies play CCSU on March 21 in New Britain before traveling down to Tampa for the first American Athletic Conference series of the year against USF on March 23-25. After the Bulls, UConn will head to Boston College on March 27 for a midweek tilt at the Eagles new baseball stadium that is expected to be completed by next March.
The Huskies will stay in the state of Connecticut for their American Conference bye weekend on March 29-31. UConn opens the weekend hosting Hartford and CCSU and then finish up in West Hartford against the Hawks.
UConn opens up a season-long five game home stretch from April 3-10. The Huskies hold midweek contests against Fairfield (April 3) and Bryant (April 10), with a conference series against UCF (April 6-8) sandwiched in between.
After the brief home stand, the Huskies begin a nine-game road trip from April 13-24. The road stretch begins against new American Conference foe Wichita State on April 13-15. The Huskies also travel to Cincinnati on April 20-22. The mid-week road tilts include UMass (April 17), UMass Lowell (April 18) and Holy Cross (April 24).
UConn is back home at J.O. Christian Field versus Rhode Island on April 25 prior to hosting a three-game series against Tulane on April 27-29.
The month of May contains a road conference series at Memphis (May 4-6) and a pair of home series against Houston (May 11-13) and ECU (May 17-19). All three mid-week matchups are road contests, at Sacred Heart (May 8), Northeastern (May 9) and Rhode Island (May 15).
The American Athletic Conference Championship is back at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Fla. on May 22-27. The champion of the double-elimination format earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
2018 UConn Baseball Schedule (PDF)
