Upstate Baseball Announces 2016 Schedule
12/17/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate baseball program and head coach Matt Fincher announced the 2016 schedule on Thursday. Upstate will play a total of 31 games at Cleveland S. Harley Baseball Park, which includes home contests against three schools that qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2015.
"We are all looking forward to the spring," Fincher said. "This will be the most difficult schedule we have faced in a number of years. Our team has more experience than in past years and we are hopeful that this will be a significant factor in how we handle the season."
Upstate will play six of its first seven games at Harley Park, opening the season against George Mason on Feb. 19. The Spartans will play Dayton and 2015 NCAA Tournament participant Stony Brook during the opening weekend, followed by a visit from Georgia State (Feb. 23). Following a trip to Wofford (Feb. 24), the Spartans close out the month at home against Evansville (Feb. 26), Monmouth (Feb. 27) and Rider (Feb. 28).
March begins with a trip to Furman, followed by a home contest against Wofford (March 2) and a three game series against Xavier (March 4-6). Upstate then hits the road for its longest non-conference road trip of the season, traveling to Charleston to face The Citadel (March 8) and Charleston Southern (March 9), followed by a weekend series at Kentucky (March 11-13).
The Spartans will welcome South Carolina on March 15 in a game that will be played at Fluor Field in Greenville. Upstate will host a multi-day tournament featuring 2015 NCAA Tournament qualifier Radford along with Lafayette before closing out the month with weeknight non-conference games at UNC Asheville (March 29) and Gardner-Webb (March 30).
Upstate opens Atlantic Sun play on the road at NJIT April 1-3, followed home non-conference contests against UNC Asheville (April 5) and Presbyterian (April 6). A trip to 2015 Atlantic Sun Champion Lipscomb serves as the second weekend of conference play for the Spartans followed by a road contest at Georgia State (April 12). Upstate opens a six-game homestand against Gardner-Webb on April 13 that also features home games against Atlantic Sun foe Kennesaw State (April 15-17) as well as non-conference games against Furman (April 19) and Charleston Southern (April 20). A road conference series at Stetson (April 22-24) concludes a busy month.
A weeknight road trip to South Carolina on May 4 opens the final month of the season. Upstate will host Florida Gulf Coast (May 6-8) in Atlantic Sun action before traveling to North Florida (May 13-15) and Presbyterian (May 17). The final regular season A-Sun series will match the Spartans against Jacksonville in Harley Park with night contests on May 19 and 20 before the regular season finale on the afternoon of May 21.
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