BLACKSBURG – The 2019 Virginia Tech baseball schedule was released Thursday and features 27 home games at English Field at Union Park highlighted by ACC home series against Clemson, North Carolina and Virginia. The 55-game schedule begins with a three-game weekend at the Stetson Tournament in DeLand, Florida, as the Hokies open the season on Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. against the host Hatters. The full schedule can be view by clicking here.
Fourteen of the first 21 games on Tech’s schedule are on the road, including a weekend series at UNC Greensboro (Feb. 22-24) and its first two ACC weekend series – at Florida State (March 8-10) and at Pittsburgh (March 15-17). Tech will play host to Bryant in a three-game series the third weekend of the year (March 1-3) and have midweek home games against ETSU (home opener on Feb. 19), Radford (Feb. 26) and two games against Richmond (March 12-13).
“The schedule will work out well for us,” Tech head baseball coach John Szefc said. “We’ll get out on the road the first two weekends, which will be very competitive weekends down at Stetson and UNC Greensboro. Then Bryant comes in the third, and they are always one of the better teams from the Northeast.
“I’ve known (Bryant head coach) Steve Owens a long time and have played his teams many times over the past 20 years, both at LeMoyne and Bryant. They usually have a really good RPI at the end of the year so that will help. Then our midweek games are kind of typical, not being too far outside of a three-hour radius. I think the non-conference will leave us a strong-enough RPI combined with the ACC games to put us in a good place at season’s end as far as RPI goes.”
Twenty of the next 34 games for Tech will be played in Blacksburg, including the final eight in the May. The Hokies face the Tar Heels (March 22-24) and Tigers (March 29-31) in back-to-back weekends and will also play host to Georgia Tech and Boston College in ACC home weekends (April 19-21 and May 3-5) before concluding the regular season with Virginia on May 16-18.
Home midweek opponents over this stretch include Liberty (March 26), Marshall (April 9), VMI (April 23), High Point (May 7) and West Virginia (May 8).
Tech plays at Wake Forest (April 5-7), Duke (April 12-14) and Miami (April 26-28) in its other ACC road weekends, while its midweek road games are highlighted by a game in Norfolk Tides Park against Old Dominion on April 30.
“Playing that home schedule, with the finished ball park now, with what I think will be a pretty good product on the field, will be a good combination for our fans to come out and watch good college baseball,” Szefc said. “We are just looking forward to getting our new player personnel on the field. We’re combining a lot of new faces with our very talented returning guys, and we feel very optimistic, with this schedule, that it will put us in a good place as long as we stay healthy.”
Admission to all midweek and non-ACC weekend contests at newly constructed English Field at Union Park will again be free, while tickets will be required for the 15 scheduled ACC home games. More information on ticketing will be released at a later date. To sign up to receive information on baseball tickets when it becomes available, CLICK HERE.
As in the past two postseasons, 12 teams will qualify for the ACC Tournament to be played in Durham Bulls Athletic Park from May 21-26. The format, in its third year, features four pools with three teams in each pool. Pool play takes place on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with three games per day. Each pool plays a round robin, with the top team advancing to the semifinals. The semifinals take place on Saturday, followed by the championship game on Sunday.
2019 Virginia Tech Baseball Schedule
