Baseball Announces 2006 Schedule
11/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
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CONWAY, S.C. – Four in-season tournaments, 35 games in the Myrtle Beach/Conway area, 17 games against 2005 NCAA Tournament teams and the return of the Big South Tournament to Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field highlight the 2006 Coastal Carolina baseball schedule, head coach Gary Gilmore announced today (Nov. 30).
The Chanticleers will begin the season hosting the Springmaid Beach Resort Tournament. Coastal faces Campbell Feb. 10 at 4 p.m. Coastal will then play Atlantic Coast Conference foe Virginia Feb. 11 and 12. A week later, Coastal hosts Pittsburgh and George Mason in the IMICHotels.com INN-vitational. CCU will play both teams twice over the three days. Coastal then has its first road game Tuesday, Feb. 21 at North Carolina at 3 p.m.
The Baseball at the Beach Tournament held at Coastal Federal Field will feature four NCAA Tournament teams from last season. Coastal will welcome Virginia Commonwealth, Tennessee and Georgia Tech Feb. 24-26. All three games will start at 3:30 p.m.
Coastal plays a single game against defending Southern Conference Tournament champion Furman Wednesday, March 1 at 4 p.m. and then hosts Furman and West Virginia in the CCU Tournament March 3-5. After a single home game against Wake Forest March 7, the Chants will travel to Mobile, Ala., March 10-12 for two games against South Alabama and one contest against Georgia Southern.
The Big South schedule opens with a home series against High Point March 17-19. Coastal will travel to Charleston Southern March 24-25 for a three-game set and then host Winthrop and Birmingham-Southern on back-to-back weekends. The Birmingham-Southern series is on Easter weekend with a doubleheader Saturday, April 15.
Texas-Pan American makes a trip to Conway for a three-game series April 28-30. After that, Coastal goes on the road for seven straight games before returning home for four to end the regular season, including a three-game conference series against UNC Asheville.
Coastal has several midweek games throughout the season, including home-and-home series with Wake Forest, College of Charleston and East Carolina.
Coastal will host the Big South Tournament for the second straight season. The tournament will be May 24-27 with the winner gaining an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament.
"The schedule is going to be extremely competitive and tough," Gilmore said. "If we have success early, it will position us to be on the board come NCAA selection time. We did well early in the schedule last year and that was a big key to our success throughout the season. We also have some tough late season games both in and out of conference. It’s going to challenge us and hopefully we can gain momentum from it and make a big run at the end."
Coastal is coming off a 50-16 season, a Big South Conference regular-season championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament as the number one seed out of the Tempe Regional.
