MOBILE, Ala. – Three Big 12 Conference opponents, two SEC schools, one Big 10 Conference and one ACC member, as well as 23 games at Stanky Field, highlight the 2018 University of South Alabama baseball schedule, as announced by head coach Mark Calvi on Friday.
USA will open the 2018 season in a round-robin tournament, hosted by Coastal Carolina, in Conway, S.C. The Jags will face Kansas State on Fri., Feb. 16, followed by a pair of games the following day against Oklahoma and Indiana. South Alabama will cap the opening weekend of the season with a contest against Virginia Tech (Feb. 18).
The Jags will host Southern Miss (Feb. 20) in their home opener before hosting Hartford (Feb. 23-25) in a three-game set at Stanky Field. South Alabama will then host Auburn (Feb. 27) before heading to Lubbock, Texas, for a four-game weekend series with Texas Tech (March 2-4).
USA will return to Stanky Field to host Alabama State (March 6), and will then head to Lafayette, La., for a three-game non-conference series with Louisiana (March 9-11).
“We were supposed to play College of Charleston, and that was set in stone two years ago,” USA head coach mark Calvi said. “But they have had some turbulence in the program; they’ve slipped from a top-25 RPI team but they will be back. The dynamics of it changed, and it went from counting them as guaranteed RPI games to where it may not be as beneficial for us to go that far and play. Like I said, they will get it fixed and turned around. Louisiana was kind of in the same predicament with their schedule, and we got together and decided it makes sense for us to play. We both are counting each other as three RPI games, but neither one of us had each other on the schedule this season. So we’ll go on the road this year and play them.”
South Alabama will travel to Baton Rouge, La., for a midweek contest with LSU (March 14) before it hosts ULM (March 16-18) at Stanky Field to open SBC play.
The Jags will host Southeastern Louisiana (March 20) before heading to Atlanta to face Georgia State (March 23-25) in a three-game SBC series.
USA will host New Orleans (March 27), and will then host Appalachian State (March 29-31) in a three-game conference set at Stanky Field. A midweek contest again Jackson State (April 3) will kick off a five-game road swing that will also feature a three-game SBC series at Coastal Carolina (April 6-8) and a midweek game at Alabama State (April 10) to cap it.
The Jags will host Georgia Southern (April 13-15) in a three-game conference series at Stanky Field before embarking on another five-game road swing at New Orleans (April 18), a three-game SBC set at Texas State (April 20-22) and a midweek contest at Southern Miss (April 24).
USA will host Arkansas State (April 27-29) in a three-game conference series before heading to Little Rock, Ark., for a three-game SBC set with Little Rock (May 4-6). The Jags will travel to Auburn (May 8) for a midweek contest before returning to Stanky Field to host UTA (May 11-13) in the final home series of the season.
South Alabama will play the final week of the regular season on the road with a midweek contest at Southeastern Louisiana (May 15), followed by a three-game conference series at Troy (May 17-19).
The Sun Belt Conference Tournament will be held in Lafayette, La., this season May 22-27.
“We open up with Kansas State and Oklahoma, and then a week later go play Texas Tech,” USA head coach Mark Calvi said. “We have six games against the Big XII which is a Power Five, one with Virginia Tech from the ACC, and a few with the SEC. Ten or 12 of our games are against Power Five conference schools. That first month of the schedule is really tough. There aren’t many in the country that will have a tougher schedule when you look at that span of games from Feb. 16 through March 14. But our goal here is to put the best schedule together that we can. We’re going to go on the road and play some really good teams. It’s all about your RPI – your body of work, strength of schedule and how you do in conference. There are several components to the schedule. It’s not just win the Sun Belt (Conference) or win 40 games and you’re good. That’s not how it is anymore. The metrics lend itself to strength of schedule, RPI, playing on the road – your attempt and then you have to win. When we’re putting the schedule together, we’re trying to play 17-20 games that we feel are top 50 RPI teams. So we want right at one-third of our schedule to be top-50 teams.
“The only thing uncomfortable about the first four weeks is that three of the first four weekends are on the road, but there are benefits there as well. Last year I saw and really believe that some of the benefits (of road games), from a camaraderie standpoint, really helped bind the team. They became very cohesive when it really mattered, and I think part of that was being together on the road so much early on in the year. As uncomfortable as the first month was last year, it made it comfortable in the end. But you look at that schedule, and it is tough but if you’re going to put it together then you might as well make it challenging and the best it can be. You also want competition to get you ready for conference play as well. We have a lot of guys who are in their third or fourth year in the program. We’ve played a good schedule every year they’ve been here, and they have gotten better because they have played really good competition. Our guys are excited and ready for this. To me, the better the schedule then the better I feel. You have to go out there and see what you have a lot earlier. I like to know what I have around the 20- or 25-game mark. You’re not going to know a lot about your team if you’re winning every game by 10 runs. The key is you have to win your fair share. You want to play a good schedule, but you have to win your fair share and go on the road. Ultimately, everything you do is to get into the (NCAA) postseason. If I felt an easy schedule was the best way to get us into the postseason, then I would schedule easier. But I feel as though a tough schedule gets you ready and prepared for where we want to be and that’s in the final 64 when they announce the regional fields in May.”
