WACO, Texas – Baylor baseball announced its 2018 schedule on Tuesday. The 52-game slate features 27 home games, 18 teams that finished over .500 in 2017, 11 teams that made the 2017 NCAA Tournament and a combined 23-opponent record of 749-598 (.556).
Coming off their first NCAA appearance since 2012, the Bears begin the season with four straight home games and play at Baylor Ballpark for 16 of the first 24 games, leaving the state of Texas just one time during that stretch. A three-game series vs. Purdue on Feb. 16-18 and Feb. 20 tilt vs. Dallas Baptist (2017 Regional) start the season.
BU then heads to Los Angeles to face UCLA (2017 Regional) from Feb. 23-25, hosts Texas State on Feb. 28, and begins March with the 2018 Frisco College Baseball Classic at Dr. Pepper Ballpark, home of the Texas Rangers’ Class AA affiliate the Frisco RoughRiders. The Bears will face California on March 2, Texas A&M (2017 College World Series) on March 3 and Louisiana Tech on March 4 in Frisco, Texas.
Following a game at UT Arlington on March 6, BU plays a season-long, seven-game home stand against George Washington (March 9-11), Sam Houston State (March 13) (2017 Super Regional) and Texas Tech (March 16-18) (2017 Regional) to being Big 12 Conference action. After a March 20 contest at Dallas Baptist, Baylor continues its home run vs. Kansas (March 23-25) and Prairie View A&M (March 27).
The Bears end March with a road series at Oklahoma (March 29-31) (2017 Regional) and home game vs. Lamar (April 3) before embarking upon a season-long, seven-game road trip. BU plays at Texas (April 6-8) (2017 Regional), Sam Houston State (April 10) and Memphis (April 13-15).
Baylor continues its April schedule with home games against Texas Southern (April 17) (2017 Regional), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (April 18) and TCU (April 20-22) (2017 College World Series). The Bears end the month with road tilts at Texas State (April 24) and Kansas State (April 27-29).
In May, BU hosts Prairie View A&M (May 8-9) and Oklahoma State (May 11-13) (2017 Regional) before ending the regular season at West Virginia (May 17-19) (2017 Regional).
The Big 12 Championship will be held May 23-27 at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and NCAA play begins with Regionals on June 1-3, Super Regionals on June 8-10 and the College World Series on June 16-27 in Omaha, Nebraska.
The Bears return 23 players from the 2016 squad that reached the Houston Regional, including All-American closer Troy Montemayor and Freshman All-American catcher Shea Langeliers. BU begins fall practice Oct. 12.
