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UConn baseball’s full 2021 schedule was revealed on Monday, including what will hopefully be the debut of the Huskies’ new field, Elliot Ballpark.
UConn’s first game at their new home is set for March 10 at 3 p.m. with the Huskies taking on Hartford. They’ll play another midweek game against Central Connecticut a few weeks later then welcome Rhode Island to town the following weekend for a three-game set.
Elliot Ballpark will also play host to another first: UConn’s first weekend series back in the Big East, which will happen April 9-11 against Georgetown. In addition, the Huskies will round out their home conference slate with series against Butler (April 30-May 2) and Seton Hall (May 20-22) then make road trips to Creighton, Xavier, St. John’s, and Villanova.
The Big East conference schedule will be made entirely up of four-game doubleheaders, with two games on Saturdays. As of now, the first game will be seven innings and the second will be a normal nine-inning contest. This has the effect of creating a bloated schedule for the Huskies — 61 games are scheduled instead of the normal 54 to account for games potentially canceled due to COVID-19.
Before their Big East lineup was revealed, UConn’s 2021 season was already set to start with an extremely strong non-conference schedule. This has become the norm in recent years but will be increasingly important in their new conference. The Big East is a large step down in quality from the AAC, so the Huskies will need that extra boost in RPI from their opponents outside of the conference.
The first pitch of the Huskies’ 2021 season will be thrown against Virginia, a squad that won the College World Series just six years ago and comes in ranked as high as fifth in the preseason rankings. UConn will also take an early-season trip to Coastal Carolina, a team that the Huskies have grown extremely familiar with in the past three years, playing them twice in the regular season and once in an NCAA Regional. Arguably the toughest test of the year will be a trip to Lubbock in March for a four-game series against No. 2 Texas Tech. The Red Raiders have been Big 12 champions five times since 2014, making the College World Series in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019.
It's still up in the air whether or not UConn fans will be allowed to attend home games at Elliot Ballpark, but if we go by the Connecticut state sector guidelines then up to 25% of the stadium could be filled, which equates to roughly 375 fans in the stands.