DAVIS, Calif. — The UC Davis baseball team will play 52 regular season games in 2018, of which 24 will take place at Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium, as announced by Head Coach Matt Vaughn on Wednesday. The Aggies will play 28 games against non-conference opponents hailing from five different conferences, in addition to 24 games against Big West Conference colleagues.
UC Davis will also play 10 of its games against five teams that advanced to last season’s NCAA Tournament, including Big West rival, Cal State Fullerton, who also participated in the College World Series. The Titans went 3-0 to sweep the Stanford Regional as the second seed, then went 2-1 against archrival Long Beach State in the super regional. In the College World Series, Fullerton was edged, 6-5, by the No. 1 seed Oregon State, then lost, 6-4, to Florida State in the elimination game.
Among the other post-season qualifiers, the Aggies will play a home-and-home with Causeway rival Sacramento State (No. 4 seed in the Stanford Regional) first at home on April 17, then on the road on May 8. Sandwiched in-between games against the Hornets, UC Davis will travel to face conference foe Long Beach State (No. 1 seed at the Long Beach Regional) on April 27-29, then turnaround to face Fullerton on May 4-6 at Phil Swimley Field at Dobbins Stadium.
Opening the season on the road for only the third time in the last nine years, UC Davis heads south to take on CSU Bakersfield on Feb. 16-18. The Aggies will then return home to enjoy a five-game home stand beginning with Stanford on Feb. 19, followed by three against Creighton of the Big East Conference.
UC Davis returns to the road, heading north to the ‘Beaver State’ to play four games against Oregon before returning home on March 16-18 to open another five-game home stand including a single mid-week clash against Santa Clara, and four against Northern Colorado over the weekend.
“Anytime you’re playing a team in the Pac-12, especially on the road, it’s always a good test,” said Head Coach Matt Vaughn.
The rest of the non-conference schedule includes three home-and-home sets with Saint Mary’s, Stanford, and San Francisco, as well as a three-game series at New Mexico during the Aggies’ conference bye week on May 18-20 in Albuquerque.
“We try to set ourselves up with our non-conference schedule to prepare us for conference play. The Big West is one of the best baseball conferences in the country and we need to be ready not just to play, but to compete in every game,” Vaughn added.
The Aggies play their first conference games on the road against UC Riverside (Mar. 29-31) before opening Big West action at home on April 6-8 when Hawai’i visits for three. UC Davis also hosts UC Santa Barbara (April 20-22), Cal State Fullerton (May 4-6), and finishes the regular season against UC Irvine (May 24-26).
