COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State baseball team released its 2019 schedule Wednesday. The Buckeyes will play 24 home games at Nick Swisher Field at Bill Davis Stadium, while nine contests are against 2018 NCAA Tournament teams.
“We are excited about the very competitive schedule we have set forth for the 2019 season,” head coach Greg Beals said. “It will be a great test and one that will position us for another at-large bid to the national tournament. We have mixed our early non-conference games with round robin tournaments and three or four game series. The round robins will allow us the opportunity to see multiple teams and the series will allow us to do more prep with scouting and in series adjustments to prepare us for conference play. We are fast at work this fall getting ready for the 2019 season.”
Ohio State opens the 2019 season Feb. 15-17 at the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla., with three games against Seton Hall. The Buckeyes will then play one game at FGCU Feb. 18 in Fort Myers, Fla. Ohio State will travel south to the state of Texas for the first time since the 2008 campaign, playing in the Kleberg Bank Tournament Feb. 22-24 in Corpus Christi, Texas. The Scarlet and Gray will face BYU, Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Oral Roberts at Whataburger Field. Following the tournament, the team will play one true road game at Texas A&M Corpus Christi Feb. 25 at Chapman Field.
Ohio State begins the month of March traveling to the state of Florida for the second time with a four-game series at Bethune-Cookman March 1-4 in Dayton Beach, Fla. The Buckeyes will make a trip to the state of South Carolina to play four games, including one against a Big Ten opponent the following week. The team will participate in the Greenville Drive 1st Pitch Invitational March 8-10 in Greenville, S.C., competing against Furman, Michigan State and Western Carolina. Ohio State will then play a single contest at Wofford in Spartanburg, S.C., March 12.
The Buckeyes open the home schedule with an eight-game homestand beginning March 15-17 with a three-game series against Lipscomb. Ohio State will welcome Hawaii to Columbus for the first meeting between the two programs in a four-game series March 21-24. The team closes out the homestand with a midweek contest with in-state opponent Toledo March 27.
The Scarlet and Gray open Big Ten season on the road in a three-game set at Rutgers March 29-31 in Piscataway, N.J. The team returns home for a midweek contest vs. Cincinnati April 3 and a three-game conference series against Northwestern April 5-7. Following a road game at Ohio April 9 and a home contest vs. Dayton April 10, the Buckeyes will host conference-rival Michigan April 12-14 at Bill Davis Stadium. Ohio State faces Xavier in a midweek game April 16 before traveling to College Park, Md., for a three-game series against the Terrapins April 19-21. Ohio State concludes the month of April with a three-game home series vs. Iowa April 26-28.
Ohio State hits the road to begin the month of May with an in-state contest in Oxford, Ohio, vs. the RedHawks May 1. The Buckeyes travel to Minneapolis, Minn., for the first time in three years with a three-game series vs. the defending Big Ten champion Minnesota Golden Gophers May 3-5. The Buckeyes wrap up the home schedule against Wright State May 8 and Penn State May 10-12. Ohio State will finish the regular season on the road with a game at Youngstown State May 14 and a three-game series at Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., May 16-18.
The Big Ten Tournament will be back again at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., May 22-26.
NOTES ON THE 2019 SCHEDULE
- The Buckeyes will travel to seven different states over the course of the 2019 season.
- Seton Hall: The Pirates went 30-20-1 last year with a 13-4 record in the Big East.
- Texas A&M Corpus Christi: The Islanders posted a 30-26 overall record and 14-16 mark in the Southland Conference. The two games next February will be the first meetings in school history.
- Oral Roberts: The Golden Eagles finished with a 38-20 overall record and Summit League regular season and tournament titles, advancing to the Fayetteville Regional.
- Bethune-Cookman: The Wildcats hired new head coach Jonathan Hernandez last August.
- Hawaii: The Rainbow Warriors will be traveling 4,506 miles to Columbus for a four-game set in the first meeting between the two schools.
- The Buckeyes will play seven midweek games against in-state opponents, including trips to Ohio University, Miami and Youngstown State.
- Northwestern: The Wildcats are back on the schedule and travel to Columbus for the first time since the 2016 campaign.
- Michigan: The Wolverines come to Columbus for the first time since the Scarlet and Gray swept the Wolverines in a three-game series during the 2016 campaign. The Wolverines went 15-8 in Big Ten play a year ago and were knocked out of the conference tournament by the Scarlet and Gray in Omaha, Neb.
- Minnesota: The Golden Gophers advanced to the Corvallis Super Regional a year ago after winning both the regular season Big Ten title as well as the Big Ten tournament with a 44-15 overall record.
- Purdue: The Boilermakers advanced to the Chapel Hill Regional and finished with a 38-21 overall record and a 17-6 mark in Big Ten play.
