UTSA head baseball coach Sherman Corbett announced the Roadrunners’ 2007 schedule on Monday. Highlighted by five opponents who qualified for the 2006 NCAA Tournament (Baylor, The College of Charleston, Rice, Texas and Texas-Arlington), a pair of early-season tournaments and a full slate of Southland Conference action, UTSA will play a total of 56 contests next spring.
”I am glad to announce the completion and release of our 2007 schedule,” Corbett said. “This begins to represent what future baseball schedules will look like as new NCAA guidelines start to take effect. This means a later starting date and more Tuesday and Wednesday mid-week games.
”Our weekend non-conference schedule includes two new faces as Louisiana-Lafayette and The College of Charleston visit San Antonio. Both teams have had past success in postseason play with The College of Charleston making the Super Regionals last year. It will be another tough schedule, but one that meets the objective we have of playing tough, competitive opponents in order to prepare for conference season and postseason play.”
UTSA’s 29-game home schedule includes five contests at Wolff Stadium – single games against St. Mary’s and Houston and a three-game series from March 9-11 against The College of Charleston, which advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals a year ago. For the first time in school history, nine of the team’s 22 games at Roadrunner Field will be played under the lights, which were installed a week ago.
The Roadrunners begin the campaign on Feb. 13 when they travel to Houston to play Rice, which was the nation’s No. 2 seed entering last year’s College World Series. Three days later, UTSA opens its home schedule with a three-game set against Louisiana-Lafayette (Feb. 16-18). The competition doesn’t get any easier as UTSA travels to Waco on Feb. 20 to play Baylor, who played in the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
The Roadrunners then travel north to the Metroplex to play Houston, Gonzaga and Missouri State in the Dallas Baptist Tournament in Frisco. One week later, UTSA will head south to the Rio Grande Valley to face Purdue, Illinois and Texas-Pan American in the UTPA Tournament. Sandwiched in between the two tournaments are home dates against St. Mary’s (Feb. 26) and Houston (Feb. 27) at Wolff Stadium.
After hosting The College of Charleston for a three-game weekend series at Wolff Stadium from March 9-11, UTSA welcomes Dallas Baptist to Roadrunner Field from March 13-14. The squad’s other non-conference home matchups include two-game series against Lamar (March 20-21) and Texas-Pan American (April 17-18). The Roadrunners travels to intra-state rivals UTPA (March 27), Texas (April 3) and Texas A&M (April 10) and play Houston on April 24 in Victoria, Texas, to wrap non-league play.
UTSA opens the 30-game Southland Conference slate with a three-game series at McNeese State beginning on March 16. Other league road trips include Texas-Arlington (April 5-7), Stephen F. Austin (April 20-22), Sam Houston State (April 27-29), Nicholls State (May 11-13) and I-35 rival Texas State (May 17).
The Roadrunners begin home conference play on March 23 when they welcome new SLC member Central Arkansas to Roadrunner Field for a three-game set. Southeastern Louisiana (March-April 1), Northwestern State (April 13-15), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (May 4-6) and Texas State (May 18-19) also are scheduled to come to San Antonio for league games this season.
The SLC Tournament is scheduled for May 23-26 on the campus of Northwestern State in Natchitoches, La. The conference’s two divisional winners, along with the next four teams with the best SLC records will qualify for the four-day tournament to decide who earns the league’s automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
