UConn Baseball Releases 2018 Schedule

On Tuesday afternoon, the UConn baseball team released its schedule for the upcoming 2018 campaign. The Huskies will play 20 games against teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season and 15 more against the final RPI top-50 from 2017.

The Huskies ended the 2017 campaign sitting 42nd in RPI and have high hopes for the coming season. Baseball America had good things to say about Jim Penders’ incoming recruiting class, while D1 Baseball had two UConn pitchers, Tim Cate and P.J. Poulin, on its Top 20 LHP prospect list and catcher Zac Susi #2 on its list of top catching prospects. Baseball America also lists Cate as the #24 MLB Draft prospect for 2018.

The schedule certainly isn’t as glamorous as last season, with no Texas or BYU, but UConn coach Jim Penders was able to get quality teams across the 56 games.

The season opens on Feb. 16 when the Huskies go down to Georgia and play three games in three days against Kennesaw State (156th in RPI), Georgia State (214th) and Georgia Tech (76th).

Southeastern Louisiana (30th) is the marquee team on the docket for UConn. The Huskies will head to Hammond, Louisiana on Feb. 23-25 before going slightly further south the following week to play North Florida (128th) March 2-4.

The home opener will be against Yale (36th) to kick off a 19-game home schedule at J.O. Christian Field on March 7. There are rumblings that some of the home series may be played at Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford. Stay tuned.

It will be a short home stand, with the annual Spring Break trip going to South Carolina this year, starting with four games against The Citadel (239th) on March 9-12 and finishing with a midweek game against Coastal Carolina (60th) March 13.

To finish up before the mid-semester break, the Huskies will play an unconventional weekend series with St. John’s (46th), where they play two in New York on March 16-17 followed up by a Sunday matchup in Storrs the next day.

UConn gets into conference play with USF (23rd) March 23-25 in Tampa. The Huskies took two of three from the Bulls at J.O. Christian Field last year in a series that helped turn their season around.

On March 27, UConn will head up to Boston College (84th) to see their new field and play a home-and-home with Hartford (184th) on March 29 and 31 with the return game of the Central Connecticut State series mixed in on March 30.

Regional action continues when Fairfield (169th) comes to J.O. Christian Field on April 3 as part of a five-game home stand that includes UCF (26th) April 6-8 and Bryant (162nd) on April 10. The Knights took two of three from UConn in Orlando last year.

UConn gets back on the road for nine consecutive games when they head to Wichita State for the first time on April 13-15.

The final week before finals sees the Huskies head to Holy Cross (199th) on April 24 before welcoming Rhode Island (68th) on April 25. Tulane (82nd), who swept the Huskies in New Orleans last year, will arrive in Storrs April 27-29.

After finals, the Huskies are back on the road to Memphis (119th) May 4-6. UConn was 4-0 against the Tigers last year, sweeping their weekend series as well as a win in the conference tournament.

The Huskies play two more road games out of conference, against Sacred Heart on May 8 and Northeastern the following day before their penultimate conference series against Houston from May 11-13 at home. The Cougars won two games in their weekend series in Texas and took two games from the Huskies in The American tournament, eliminating UConn and ending in their season.

The Huskies complete their home-and-home series with Rhode Island when they host the Rams on May 15 before East Carolina comes to town May 17-19 in the final weekend of the regular season. As regional opponents, UConn went 5-1 against the Pirates in the regular season, getting the sweep on the road before taking two more at home.