FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
NORTHRIDGE, Calif. – Featuring eight games against teams that competed in the 2010 NCAA postseason, nine mid-week contests, a four-game tournament in Beaumont, Texas, and 30 games at Matador Field, head coach Matt Curtis released his 2011 schedule Friday afternoon.
Two of the three scheduled doubleheaders that CSUN will participate in will take place against their first two opponents – Feb. 19 against Seattle and Feb. 26 against Valparaiso. The first game of every doubleheader will start at 11:00 a.m. with the second starting 30 minutes after the conclusion of game one.
The Matadors’ third, and final scheduled doubleheader will also take place at Matador Field against Lafayette on March 13.
Participating in their first season as members of the coaching staff, Curtis and his assistants Shaun Larkin, Tim Leary, and Andy Wilson will begin their Matador coaching careers with a season-long seven game homestand.
Opening the 2011 season with four games against Seattle (Feb. 18-20), CSUN will compete in another three-game series against Valparaiso (Feb. 25-27) before embarking on their first road trip of the season.
Last season, CSUN flew to Seattle and completed a four-game sweep against the Redhawks, results the Matadors hope to replicate in their inaugural series of the season. Valparaiso is the first of two teams, Lafayette being the other, that the Matadors will face in 2011 for the first time in the in the 52-year history of their program.
Northridge will travel to Beaumont, Texas as one of four participants in the annual Young Men’s Business League (YMBL) Cardinal Classic hosted by Lamar University. Starting on March 3, the Matadors will face New Mexico State, San Francisco, and compete against the host Cardinals on two occasions throughout the four-day tournament before traveling back to the Valley in preparation for another lengthy homestand.
Possessing winning records in their series against New Mexico State and San Francisco, Northridge will try to snap their two-game losing streak against the Lobos, and add to their seven-game winning streak against the Dons in their respective match-ups. CSUN has previously faced Lamar on only one occasion, a 1-0 loss that took place during the 2007 season in the University of Texas-Pan American Citrus Tournament
A series of six home games against San Diego State (Mar. 8), Lafayette (Mar. 11-14), and UNLV (Mar. 15) await the Matadors once they return from Texas, completing a portion of the schedule that includes 14 home games out of their first 18 scheduled contests.
The second, and final road trip prior to the start of Big West competition will see the Matadors traveling north for a three-game series at Sacramento State (Mar. 18-20) before facing Loyola Marymount in another three-game, home-and-away series.
Beginning at Matador Field on Friday, Mar. 25, the teams will alternate hosting duties for the remainder of the series; CSUN will make the trip down the 405 freeway to the Loyola Marymount for Saturday’s game before hosting the series finale against the Lions on Sunday.
In their weekend series against Loyola Marymount last season, CSUN’s line-up scored a combined 35 runs against the Lions; on March 14 in the series finale, the teams hit ten home runs, scored 30 runs, and finished with 30 hits combined as the scoreboard at Matador Field received quite a workout in the most blustery home game of the season.
The Matadors’ final tune-up prior to the start of conference action will take place on Mar. 29 in the second of three games scheduled against San Diego State. Of the three games scheduled against the Aztecs, this will the first of two occasions where CSUN will travel to San Diego as the Matadors will also make the trek to Tony Gwynn Stadium for their final non-conference game of the season.
The start of the 2011 conference will look familiar to fans of Matador Baseball as CSUN will once again bookend their conference schedule against UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton, and compete in a series of non-conference games as the respective recipient of the conference bye week for the second straight season.
After enjoying a non-conference schedule laden with home games, CSUN will take their turn traveling from location to location for a majority of games taking place in April. Starting with their inaugural Big West series in Irvine (Apr. 1-3), 12 of the Matadors’ 17 games played in April will take place on the road.
Following their games against the Anteaters, CSUN will travel to Las Vegas for the third straight season to face the UNLV Rebels (Apr. 5) before commencing their three-game series against Cal State Bakersfield. That series against the Roadrunners will begin in Northridge (Apr. 8) and conclude over the weekend in Bakersfield (Apr. 9-10).
Northridge defeated UNLV in both games played last season and have won ten of the last thirteen games between the two.
Northridge will conclude their week of games against a familiar foe, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos, in the first game of another home-and-away series that will serve as additional non-conference games for each team. The two will still face one another in their annual Big West weekend series in early May, but the results of their games on Apr. 12 and 26 in Northridge and Santa Barbara respectively will only influence the overall records of each team.
This will be the second time in the last four years that the Matadors and Gauchos will face one another in both a conference and non-conference capacity, during the 2008 season each team defeated the other at home in their two non-conference games.
Once their scheduled bye week concludes, Northridge will resume conference action with respective weekend series at Cal Poly (Apr. 15-17), and home against Pacific (Apr. 21-23).
CSUN took all three of their games against Cal Poly when the teams faced one another at Matador Field last season, and emerged victorious in two of three games against the Tigers when Pacific last traveled to the Valley in 2009.
After concluding the second-half of their non-conference series against the Gauchos (Apr. 26), the Matadors will travel to UC Davis (Apr. 29-May 1) before facing Santa Barbara once again in a three-game Big West weekend series (May 6-8).
The final mid-week, non-conference game of the season will take place on May 10 when CSUN travels to San Diego State once again to conclude their three-game season series against the Aztecs. From that point on, the final three weeks of the season will consist of conference games only.
Starting with their penultimate home series against UC Riverside (May 13-15), six of CSUN’s final nine home games will take place at Matador Field.
CSUN’s final regular season road trip will take place at Blair Field, a venue that saw senior right-hander Ryan Juarez earn the first complete game of the 2009 season for the Matadors when they last faced the Long Beach State 49ers (May 20-22).
As was the case last season, the Matadors will end their schedule against the Cal State Fullerton Titans (May 27-29), a bittersweet weekend that double as the final regular season series at Northridge for seven graduating seniors.
