BUIES CREEK, N.C. — Head coach Justin Haire, who enters his sixth season at the helm and 13th overall at Campbell, has announced the 2020 Campbell baseball schedule, which features 52 games across Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia.
Coming off the program’s first-ever back-to-back Big South championships and consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, the Fighting Camels will play 21 games at Jim Perry Stadium, 27 road contests and four neutral-site games.
Additionally, Campbell’s schedule includes 11 games against six teams that played in the 2019 NCAA Tournament: Army, East Carolina, Duke, North Carolina, NC State and UNC Wilmington. Three of those teams – ECU, Duke and North Carolina – advanced to an NCAA Super Regional.
Campbell’s midweek schedule features home-and-home series with five in-state opponents: ECU (Feb. 19, May 12), Duke (Mar. 4, May 5), UNC Greensboro (Mar. 17, Apr. 14), NC State (Apr. 7, Apr. 29) and UNCW (Mar. 24, Mar. 31). The Camels will also host the Old Dominion Monarchs on Mar. 11 before traveling to Chapel Hill to face North Carolina on Apr. 21.
Campbell will open its Big South Conference slate with a trip to Charleston, S.C., to face Charleston Southern on Mar. 13-15. The following weekend, Mar. 20-22, the Camels will host High Point. Campbell will also welcome league foes USC Upstate (Apr. 3-5), Winthrop (Apr. 17-19) and Gardner-Webb (May 8-10) to Buies Creek in 2020.
Along with the series at Charleston Southern, Campbell’s 2020 Big South road schedule also features trips to UNC Asheville (Mar. 27-29), Radford (Apr. 9-11), Presbyterian (May 1-3) and Longwood (May 14-16).
Campbell will play two three-game, non-conference road series, opening the season at Sun Belt Conference member South Alabama on Feb. 14-16. Campbell last faced USA in a two-game road series in 1989. The trip to Mobile, Ala., will be Campbell’s first series in the state of Alabama since 2009 when the Camels played a two-game set at Alabama A&M in Huntsville, Ala.
On Feb. 21-23, the Fighting Camels will host the Campbell Invitational with Purdue, Villanova and Maine traveling to Buies Creek. Campbell will face all three opponents for the first time in program history, while the Purdue-Campbell game on Friday, Feb. 21, will pit Haire and the Camels against former Campbell head coach Greg Goff (2008-14) and former assistant coach Chris Marx (2015-19), who both enter their first seasons in their current roles at Purdue.
During spring break, the Camels will face the Southern Conference’s Furman Paladins on Mar. 6-8, which will be the first meeting between the Camels and Paladins since 1996.
Campbell, Army and Air Force will meet in Fayetteville, N.C., Feb. 28 through Mar. 1 for the Armed Forces Invitational presented by Walsingham Group. The weekend invitational, which will be hosted by the Fayetteville Woodpeckers at Segra Stadium, will feature two games each day. The Camels will face Army on Friday before taking on Air Force on Saturday. Campbell will cap off the weekend by playing both teams again on Sunday.
Army last faced Campbell in 2014 as part of the Campbell Classic, and, like the Camels, the Black Knights are coming off back-to-back conference titles, winning the 2018 and 2019 Patriot League tournament championships. Campbell’s games against Air Force will be the first-ever contests between the Camels and the Falcons.
After the regular season, Campbell will return to Segra Stadium for the 2020 Big South Championship, which is slated for May 19-23.
The 2019 Big South Championship will again be played in Fayetteville, N.C., and is scheduled for May 19-23 at the Fayetteville Woodpecker’s Segra Stadium.
CU returns 25 letter winners from last year’s championship squad, including Second Team All-Big South performer Collin Wolf. The 2020 team features 18 newcomers, including nine freshmen and nine junior college transfers.
Campbell finished its 2019 campaign 37-21 overall, suitable for the winningest season under Haire, who enters his sixth season at the helm in 2020. The Fighting Camels swept the Big South regular-season and tournament titles for the second consecutive season, making their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance. At the NCAA Greenville Regional, CU went 2-0 over its first two games, making its first regional championship appearance in program history.
