Bucs bring Tennessee, Virginia Tech and West Virginia to Thomas Stadium

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Dec. 8, 2014) – Preparations for the ETSU baseball season are underway as head coach Tony Skole released the Bucs’ 2015 schedule on Monday.

Thirty-one home games, home-and-homes with Tennessee and Virginia Tech, a weekend home series against West Virginia and a trip to St. Louis highlights ETSU’s schedule.

Coach Skole is ready for his team to face a difficult test as the Bucs play teams from 11 different conferences (ACC, A-Sun, A-10, BIG EAST, Big 12, Big South, MAC, OVC, SEC, SoCon, and Sun Belt) this season.

“I'm really excited about this year's schedule,” said Skole. “It presents a huge challenge for our program and is probably one of the most competitive ones we have had in recent years. This year’s schedule features a nice balance from beginning to end. It’s a very diverse schedule, playing programs from many different conferences.”

ETSU, who plays 13 of its first 18 games at Thomas Stadium, opens the season with a weekend series against Eastern Kentucky beginning Friday, Feb. 13. The Bucs host West Virginia the first full weekend in March (6-8), while Virginia Tech visits Johnson City April 15 and Tennessee follows a week later (April 21). ETSU heads to St. Louis on Easter weekend (April 2-4) to face the reigning A-10 champions.

Following its season-opening series with the Colonels, ETSU travels to Spartanburg for the Upstate Classic the weekend of Feb. 20-22. While in South Carolina, the Bucs take on a familiar foes in USC Upstate and UNC Asheville, while concluding the tournament with ACC contender Pittsburgh.

After making their lone weekend road trip until the conference opener in mid-March, the Blue and Gold return home to take on BIG EAST power Butler (Feb. 27-March 1) and host Radford in its first midweek game of the season on March 3. From there, ETSU travels to Asheville for a midweek game with the Bulldogs on March 4, while returning home to take on West Virginia.

The home-and-home series with the Vols kicks off in Knoxville as the Bucs take on Tennessee March 10, while UT visits Johnson City in late April. Sandwiched between the game at Tennessee are home weekend series with West Virginia and defending MAC East champions Miami University (March 13-15).

ETSU opens Southern Conference play on the road with a well-known foe as the Blue and Gold travel to Macon, Ga., for a three-game series at Mercer (March 20-22), before coming home the following weekend to host UNCG (March 27-29).

Other home conference series feature Samford (April 17-19), regular season SoCon champion Western Carolina (April 24-26) and Wofford (May 15-16), while the Bucs travel to VMI (April 10-12), Furman (May 1-3) and The Citadel (May 8-10) to conclude the conference portion of the schedule.

“We are thrilled to be back in the Southern Conference,” said Skole. “I think our non-conference schedule will help prepare us for the difficult challenges we will face in the Southern Conference.  But most of all, we are looking to forward to playing in front of our great fans once again – who showed up in record numbers last year. There is no doubt that Thomas Stadium is a great venue to watch a college baseball game. We are excited about the opportunity that the 2015 schedule presents us.” 

In addition to the home-and-home series with Tennessee and Virginia Tech, ETSU will also feature the same with UNC Asheville, Morehead State, Radford, Appalachian State, and Winthrop.

The season concludes with the SoCon Championship, which will be held May 19-24 in Charleston, S.C. The champion receives the league’s automatic to the NCAA Regional.

Season tickets are now on sale and can be purchased by calling the ETSU ticket office at (423) 439-3878 or by visiting ETSUBucs.com.

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