LAWRENCE, Kan. – Twenty-four games against 2018 NCAA Tournament participants highlight the 2019 Kansas baseball schedule announced by the team Wednesday afternoon.
Of those 24 contests, six will be played against squads that made it to the College World Series a year ago in Texas Tech and Texas. In addition, 58 percent (14) of the Jayhawks’ opponents finished with a record above .500 with nine of their 24 adversaries finishing in the top three of their respective conference standings.
“You always want to play quality opponents, especially early, to get ready for the conference slate,” head coach Ritch Price said. “You look at our schedule and we are playing teams that finished in the top half of their conferences and teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament a year ago.”
The Jayhawks will open up the 2019 campaign with a four-game road trip to South Carolina Upstate Feb. 15-18, before returning to Hoglund Ballpark to open up an eight-game homestand against Omaha (Feb. 20), Texas Southern (Feb. 22-24) and Northern Illinois (March 1-3). Kansas will then travel to Port Charlotte, Florida, for the Snowbird Classic (March 8-13) for a game each against: St. Joseph’s Georgetown, Ball State, Central Connecticut State and Seton Hall.
The first true road test will come for KU on a trip to Queens, New York, where the squad will take on perennial Big East power St. John’s in a three-game set (March 15-17).
“The highlight of the nonconference schedule is the trip to St. John’s, a team that has won 40 games three seasons in a row,” Price said. “St. John’s was ranked in the top-25 when it came here a year ago and we swept them – that was one of the best sweeps in my tenure at the University of Kansas.”
The Jayhawks will continue their road swing when they travel to Wichita State (March 20) and then continue south for a three-game series at Oklahoma (March 22-24) to open up Big 12 Conference play. A single contest at Missouri State on March 27 ends the 13-game stretch away from Hoglund Ballpark.
The Big 12 home opener for Kansas is slated for March 29 against Baylor, the first of three against the Bears. KU then welcomes in the Wichita State Shockers to wrap up the two-game season series (April 2), before hitting the road for Texas Tech (April 5-7).
Four-straight games at Hoglund Ballpark against Missouri State (April 9) and Oklahoma State (April 12-14) will prime Kansas for its Easter-weekend trip to West Virginia, April 19-21.
“The first four weekends of the conference season we will face NCAA Tournament teams,” Price said. “That is about as tough of a conference schedule as you can open up.”
The Jayhawks will play at Furman (April 25-28) on their bye weekend before a midweek set at Air Force April 30 – May 1.
“We will tour the Air Force Academy that Tuesday morning before we play,” Price said. “You want your players to learn about the places we travel to and that trip will be a good learning experience for our young men.”
Kansas will close out the season with three conference series bookending a two-game midweek set against Jackson State. The first weekend in May (3-5) KU will host Texas, before the Tigers roll into town Tuesday and Wednesday, May 7-8. The last road trip will feature three contests at TCU (May 10-12) before closing out the regular season against in-state rival Kansas State at home on graduation weekend (May 17-19).
2.6K
