FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno State head baseball coach Mike Batesole unveiled his squad’s 2015 schedule on Thursday. The spring slate will test the Diamond ‘Dogs over a 56-game regular season schedule that kicks off Friday, February 13 at Beiden Field with UC Irvine, one of eight teams to reach Omaha for the College World Series last season.
The Bulldogs will host 29 games at Beiden Field, which includes opponents from the Big West, Pac-12, North East Conference and Western Athletic Conference, along with its Mountain West schedule. In addition to UC Irvine, the Bulldogs will host two more NCAA tournament teams on its nonconference slate, Cal Poly and Sacramento State – each team won their respective conference. Pac-12 opponents, California and USC, will also be making return trips to Beiden Field.
In total, Fresno State will play five NCAA tournament teams in 2015 and three conference champions from other leagues. Its stiffest test will arguably be a trip to Corvallis, March 6-8, to face last season’s No. 1 overall seed of the NCAA tournament, Oregon State. The Beavers won their second-straight Pac-12 championship and entered the postseason season as the top overall seed, but fell to UC Irvine in the Regional in Corvallis in the final game to advance to the Super Regional – a Regional that also included MW foe, UNLV.
Fresno State will open its league schedule at Nevada with a three-game series, starting Feb. 20. The first pitch of MW play will begin just five games into the regular season. A season ago, the Wolf Pack visited Beiden Field six games into the season, which what was the earliest intra-conference matchup in the Batesole era.
The 2015 Mountain West Championship will be hosted by Nevada at Peccole Park, May 20-24.
