Even though Christmas Day isn’t until Saturday, spring is right around the corner. UConn baseball has unveiled its 56-game schedule for the 2022 season, in which they try to return to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight time, which would be a program record.
As is usual for northern baseball teams, they’ll spend the first five weekends of the year traveling, the first three of which are to Florida. UConn will start it off with the USF Invitational, playing one game each against USF (Feb. 18), Charlotte (Feb. 19) and Louisville (Feb. 20). USF and Charlotte both earned Regional berths in 2021, while the Bulls made it to the Austin Super Regional.
Penders’ crew will come back to the Sunshine State twice more for three-game sets with North Florida (Feb. 25-27) and FIU (March 4-6) before spending spring break in Southern California.
The trip will be book-ended by three-game series with Pepperdine (March 11-13) and UC San Diego (March 18-20), with midweek contests against USC (March 15) and Long Beach State (March 16) mixed in as well.
The Huskies will then play a split series against Rhode Island (March 25-27), as the Friday and Sunday games will be at home, with a Saturday contest at Bill Beck Field. They will then travel to Kent State (April 1-3) for three contests before Big East play starts.
During the conference season, UConn will play three-game sets at home against St. John’s (April 8-10), Villanova (April 22-24), Creighton (May 6-8) and Xavier (May 13-15), while they will travel to Seton Hall (April 14-16), Butler (April 29-May 1) and Georgetown (May 19-21). The Seton Hall series, which is on Easter weekend, will feature a Thursday contest and a Saturday doubleheader.
The team finished with the Big East regular season title and tournament championship in 2021, with a 13-4 regular season record against conference foes.
The Huskies’ 23-game home slate will be filled out with midweek games against Hartford (March 8), Bryant (March 23), Boston College (March 29), CCSU (April 5), Merrimack (April 6), UMass (April 19), Yale (April 27) and Northeastern (May 10) on campus at Elliot Ballpark, while April 12’s contest with Marist is slated for Dunkin’ Donuts Park in Hartford.
In addition to the home games, UConn will travel to Boston College (April 20), Northeastern (April 26) and Bryant (May 17) to try and boost its RPI numbers as much as possible. The Huskies will play just two teams in the non-conference with an average RPI below 200 over the past three years, which are UMass and Yale. Meanwhile, Boston College, Bryant and Northeastern have averaged a respective 101, 109 and 64 in the RPI over the past three seasons.
In previous seasons, rather than play the better teams in the Northeast twice, these slots were filled by teams like Holy Cross (212 average), UMass Lowell (217 average) and Fairfield, which aside from a top-10 finish last year, has not been traditionally successful in RPI rankings.
Though the Huskies will play merely five games against four teams that made the NCAA Tournament in 2021, the schedule features Louisville, which is more likely to host a Regional than miss out on the tournament in any given year, as well as the top schools in the Northeast in Boston College, Bryant, Northeastern and Rhode Island for at least a home-and-home, while the trip to California features powers Long Beach State, Pepperdine and USC.
Season tickets are also on sale for the first time. Chairback seats are $199, bleachers are $149 and berm seating is $99.
Baseball tabbed preseason champions
In addition to the schedule release, the Big East preseason coaches’ poll and all-conference team were announced. The Huskies were the unanimous favorites, while Creighton (41 points) got Jim Penders’ first-place vote and was slotted second. Xavier (36 points) and St. John’s (30 points) round out the top half of the conference, while Seton Hall (29 points), Butler (16 points), Georgetown (13 points) and Villanova (10 points) followed.
In addition, senior outfielder Erik Stock was a unanimous selection to the all-conference team, while senior starting pitcher Austin Peterson was also named to the squad.
Check out the full schedule below.
2022 UConn Baseball Schedule
Date | Opponent | Location | Time/Result | TV/Record |
---|---|---|---|---|
Date | Opponent | Location | Time/Result | TV/Record |
USF Invitational | ||||
February 18 | USF | Tampa, FL | 6 p.m. | ESPN+ |
February 19 | Charlotte | Tampa, FL | TBA | TBD |
February 20 | Louisville | Tampa, FL | 9 a.m. | TBD |
February 25 | North Florida | Jacksonville, FL | 6:05 p.m. | SWOOPLife Live |
February 26 | North Florida | Jacksonville, FL | 2:05 p.m. | SWOOPLife Live |
February 27 | North Florida | Jacksonville, FL | 1:05 p.m. | SWOOPLife Live |
March 4 | Florida International | Miami, FL | 7 p.m. | TBD |
March 5 | Florida International | Miami, FL | 6 p.m. | TBD |
March 6 | Florida International | Miami, FL | 12 p.m. | TBD |
March 8 | Hartford | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
March 11 | Pepperdine | Malibu, CA | 5 p.m. | TBD |
March 12 | Pepperdine | Malibu, CA | 4 p.m. | TBD |
March 13 | Pepperdine | Malibu, CA | 4 p.m. | TBD |
March 15 | USC | Los Angeles, CA | 9 p.m. | Pac-12+ |
March 16 | Long Beach State | Long Beach, CA | 9 p.m. | ESPN+ |
March 19 | UC San Diego | San Diego, CA | TBA | TBD |
March 20 | UC San Diego | San Diego, CA | TBA | TBD |
March 21 | UC San Diego | San Diego, CA | TBA | TBD |
March 23 | Bryant | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
March 25 | Rhode Island | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
March 26 | Rhode Island | Kingston, RI | TBA | TBD |
March 27 | Rhode Island | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
March 29 | Boston College | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
April 1 | Kent State | Kent, OH | 6 p.m. | TBD |
April 2 | Kent State | Kent, OH | TBA | TBD |
April 3 | Kent State | Kent, OH | 1 p.m. | TBD |
April 5 | CCSU | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
April 6 | Merrimack | Elliot Ballpark | 6 p.m. | FloSports |
April 8 | St. John's* | Elliot Ballpark | TBA | FloSports |
April 9 | St. John's* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
April 10 | St. John's* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
April 12 | Marist | Dunkin' Donuts Park | 6:05 p.m. | FloSports |
April 14 | Seton Hall* | South Orange, NJ | TBA | FloSports |
April 16 | Seton Hall* | South Orange, NJ | TBA | FloSports |
April 16 | Seton Hall* | South Orange, NJ | TBA | FloSports |
April 19 | UMass | Elliot Ballpark | 3 p.m. | FloSports |
April 20 | Boston College | Brighton, MA | 5:30 p.m. | TBD |
April 22 | Villanova* | Elliot Ballpark | 6:05 p.m. | FloSports |
April 23 | Villanova* | Elliot Ballpark | 2 p.m. | FloSports |
April 24 | Villanova* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
April 26 | Northeastern | Brookline, MA | 3 p.m. | TBD |
April 27 | Yale | Elliot Ballpark | 4 p.m. | FloSports |
April 29 | Butler* | Indianapolis, IN | 4 p.m. | FloSports |
April 30 | Butler* | Indianapolis, IN | 2 p.m. | FloSports |
May 1 | Butler* | Indianapolis, IN | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
May 6 | Creighton* | Elliot Ballpark | 6:05 p.m. | FloSports |
May 7 | Creighton* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
May 8 | Creighton* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
May 10 | Northeastern | Elliot Ballpark | 6:05 p.m. | FloSports |
May 13 | Xavier* | Elliot Ballpark | 7:05 p.m. | FloSports |
May 14 | Xavier* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
May 15 | Xavier* | Elliot Ballpark | 1 p.m. | FloSports |
May 17 | Bryant | Smithfield, RI | 3 p.m. | TBD |
May 19 | Georgetown* | Washington, DC | TBA | FloSports |
May 20 | Georgetown* | Washington, DC | TBA | FloSports |
May 21 | Georgetown* | Washington, DC | TBA | FloSports |
Big EAST Tournament | ||||
May 26-29 | TBD | Mason, OH | TBD | TBD |
NCAA Tournament | ||||
June 3-6 | Regionals | TBD | TBD | ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPNews/ESPN3 |
June 10-13 | Super Regionals | TBD | TBD | ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPNews/ESPN3 |
June 17-27 | College World Series | Omaha, NE | TBD | ESPN/ESPN2 |
* - Big EAST Conference game | ||||
Rankings via Coaches' Poll |
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