By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
2015 Golden Eagle Baseball Schedule
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Just one season after becoming the first-ever Ohio Valley Conference team to earn a preseason top-40 ranking from Collegiate Baseball newspaper, the Tennessee Tech baseball team, which received votes in this year's preseason poll, will tackle yet another challenging slate of opponents and look to post its third straight 40-win campaign in 2015.
A 55-game schedule awaits the Golden Eagles, including 30 home contests at Bush Stadium at the Averitt Express Baseball Complex. Tech will open the 2015 season with 15 of its first 17 games in the friendly confines of Bush Stadium, including the opening series against Longwood in less than three weeks.
"I love that our first three weekends of non-conference play are at home," TTU head coach Matt Bragga said. "I think that's always a good thing and it's always nice to get things started at home."
The Golden Eagles will host Longwood for the first time in school history with the season-opening pitch on Friday, Feb. 13. Other first-time opponents for Tech include a single-game contest against La Salle and perhaps the biggest highlight of the entire schedule, a three-game road swing in Phoenix, Ariz., to face the No. 19 ranked Sun Devils of Arizona State, April 24-26.
Other notable non-conference opponents on tap for the 2015 slate include four in-state rivals. The first such game, a solo contest at Tennessee, is set for Feb. 18 and represents Tech's first road tilt of the year.
Home-and-home series versus Middle Tennessee and Lipscomb also await the Golden Eagles, contests that saw the Tech squad accomplish a 5-1 record last season.
"Our first three non-conference, mid-week games are against No. 33 Tennessee, Middle Tennessee and Lipscomb, and those are always fun," Bragga explained. "The in-state opponents are always high-quality programs and there are definitely some rivalries there. No question. That will be fun."
The final in-state competition for Tech is a March 17 meeting with preseason No. 1 Vanderbilt, the defending national champions. It was just two seasons ago that the Golden Eagles made the trip to Nashville and upset the Commodores, then ranked No. 2 in the nation.
Rounding out the non-conference portion of the 2015 campaign are three-game home series against Youngstown State and Northern Illinois, and home-and-home series with Western Carolina, UNC Asheville and Alabama A&M.
As for conference play, Tech will kick off its OVC schedule with three home games against Morehead State, beginning on Friday, March 6. Other home series will involve SIUE, Eastern Illinois, Murray State and Belmont. The Golden Eagles will hit the road to take on UT Martin, Austin Peay, Jacksonville State, Southeast Missouri, and close out the regular season at Eastern Kentucky.
"The entire OVC schedule will be great, as always," Bragga said. "We've got some coaches in our league that just do a phenomenal job with their programs and continue to elevate the caliber of play throughout our conference. And that will just continue to grow in the future with the amount of time and preparation that those coaches put in.
"It will be a challenge from start to finish, for sure," Bragga added, "but that's something our guys look forward to. Anytime you have a chance to play in a quality league, as ours is, we know every week is going to be tough, but that's why you play the game. We look forward to it from the very beginning and are anxious to get the newest challenge started."
Photo by Tony Marable
