EAST GREENSBORO (December 18, 2018) – The defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) champion North Carolina A&T baseball team has released its 2019 schedule. The schedule includes a rematch of last season’s NCAA Chapel Hill regional matchup between the Aggies and the North Carolina Tar Heels.
The schedule also includes another ACC school in N.C. State and SEC power South Carolina. The Aggies will also play six different in-state schools in non-conference play and they will get an opportunity to play at New Bridge Bank Park, the minor league ballpark for the Greensboro Grasshoppers, twice.
There will be a new format to how MEAC three-game series are conducted this season.
N.C. A&T finished 32-25 overall and 16-8 in the MEAC last season. They claimed their first regular-season and MEAC tournament title in 13 years and advanced to the NCAA tournament where they were assigned to the Chapel Hill regional. N.C. A&T opened 2018 5-10 but went 27-13 over their last 40 games before they went 0-2 at the regional. They swept (3-0) their way through the MEAC tournament. They also broke the school record for overall and conference wins.
“We made a big stride in 2018 as a program, however, there is more out there for A&T baseball,” said N.C. A&T head coach Ben Hall who is 60-50 as the Aggies head coach over the past two seasons. “We want to create a model of consistency in winning championships and you have to continually test and push your program. I look forward to seeing our group raise their standard to another level in 2019.”
Ten of the Aggies first 11 games will occur at War Memorial Stadium. The Aggies were an impressive 20-11 at home last season. Their season opener is 3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 15 against Niagara at WMS. It will be the first game of a three-game series against the Purple Eagles (Feb. 16, 3 p.m., Feb. 17, 1 p.m.) before the Aggies travel to Chapel Hill to face UNC 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 19. The Aggies lost to the Tar Heels 12-2 in the regional and 1-0 during the 2018 regular season.
In-state non-conference foe Elon visits WMS the next day at 4 p.m. before the Aggies open a three-game home series (Feb. 22-24) against Northern Kentucky. Elon and the Aggies will play again 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 24 at Elon. Another in-state school will visit “The War” soon after as Davidson faces the Aggies 4 p.m., Tuesday, Feb 26. The rematch with Davidson will occur 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 1 at Davidson.
March begins with a three-game road series at College of Charleston (March 1-3). The Aggies return to WMS for one game when they face Valparaiso 4 p.m., Tuesday, March 5.
Conference play starts for the Aggies on March 8 on the road against rival N.C. Central. There is a new twist to how three-game series are formatted. Instead of playing a doubleheader on Saturday and a single game on Sunday, MEAC series will consist of a single game on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Aggies will play the Eagles at 4 p.m., on March 8 and 9 before concluding the series on March 10 at 1 p.m.
The Aggies other conference series are at Bethune-Cookman (March 22-24), at home against Savannah State (March 29-31), at Florida A&M (April 5-7), at home against NCCU (April 12-14), at home against B-CU (April 26-28), at Savannah State (May 3-5) and at home against FAMU (May 10-12).
In other non-conference games, the Aggies will play in-state foe High Point twice with the first game occurring on Feb. 27 at WMS and the rematch happening on March 13 at High Point. The Aggies will host Marist for a three-game series (March 15-17) before facing crosstown rival UNC Greensboro on March 19 in their annual tilt at New Bridge Bank Park. The Aggies other New Bridge Bank Park game will be against N.C. State 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 27.
There will also be two non-conference games against USC Upstate within a week of each other. The two teams will first meet at WMS on April 3 before playing the rematch on April 10 in Spartanburg, S.C. Other non-conference contests include a single game at USC on April 16 and a three-game road series at Liberty (April 18-20).
N.C. A&T returns three All-MEAC talents in infielder A.J. Hunt, outfielder Dawnoven Smith and RHP Michael Johnson. They also return conference tournament MVP, Zach McLean.
2019 North Carolina A&T Schedule
