Baseball: 2004 Schedule Announced
November 19, 2003 04:56 PM | General
November 19, 2003
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| Van Zant |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- West Virginia University athletic director Ed Pastilong today announced the 2004 baseball schedule.
“We are very excited and welcome the challenge of the 2004 schedule,” says WVU coach Greg Van Zant. “The schedule is as strong, if not a little stronger, than the schedule we faced last year.”
The Mountaineers are set for three tournaments to open the season. The trips include traveling to Charleston, S.C., for The Citadel Tournament, a stop in Wilmington, N.C., for UNC-Wilmington Tournament and finally a trip to Minneapolis, Minn., to take part in the Metrodome Tournament.
“The first three weeks of the season are on the road at pretty good tournaments,” says Van Zant. “Of those first 10 games, five of our opponents made regional appearances last year.”
“We always look forward to going to Charleston. The people at The Citadel do a great job. It gives our guys a chance to face solid competition right from the start.”
WVU will face some of the best baseball in the country when they travel to Minneapolis. The Mountaineers will play three games in the Metrodome, home of Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins. West Virginia will face Minnesota of the Big Ten, Florida State of the ACC and Nebraska of the Big XII.
“We’ve been looking forward to this tournament for four or five years now,” says Van Zant. “It is one of the most prestigious tournaments going on today. This is a great opportunity for our guys to play against some of the best teams in the country.”
On March 9, WVU opens its home slate against Quinnipiac for a three game series. The Mountaineers will then host four straight opponents at Hawley Field before the conference opener.
West Virginia hosts Notre Dame to begin BIG EAST play on March 27. The BIG EAST road opener is slated for April 3, when WVU travels to Piscataway, N.J., for a two-game series against Rutgers.
“We open BIG EAST play with the two teams that knocked us out of the tournament last year in Notre Dame and Rutgers,” says Vant Zant. “The Notre Dame and Rutgers series’ will be huge as we look to get off to a good start in conference play. All 26 games will be knock-down drag out games. The conference again will be very competitive.
“This is a big schedule and our players are looking forward to it. Hopefully we can win enough ball games to get us back into the BIG EAST tournament and even take it a step further this year.”
The Mountaineers will play host 36 times and take to the road for 26 contests. The 36 games at Hawley Field are the second most in school history. Only the 1999 season featured more home games when WVU played 38.
