LOUDONVILLE, NY – Siena Baseball Head Coach Tony Rossi has announced the Saints’ 2020 schedule. The slate is highlighted by matchups vs. five NCAA Tournament teams from last spring as well as 20 home dates at Connors Park.
“We have always put together a challenging schedule for our club, and this year’s schedule is no different,” said Rossi, who enters his 51st season leading the program. “I feel that the extremely competitive early part of this schedule should give us a good indication on how well we will fair this season once we get back to the Northeastern part of the schedule.”
Siena’s annual ultra-competitive non-conference slate features contests vs. eight programs who each won 30 or more games last spring, including four NCAA Tournament teams, and three conference champions.
The Saints are set to kick off their 2020 campaign with 26 straight games away from home – including 24 true road games – to mark the program’s longest road trip to open a season since a 34-game swing to begin the 2014 schedule. Siena’s diverse season-opening road trip features 14 opponents hailing from eight different states.
For the 10th time in the past 11 seasons, Siena will open play in the Sunshine State with a four-game series at perennial regional power UCF Feb. 14-16. This will be the eighth time in the last 10 years that the Saints will begin their season in Orlando against the Knights.
Siena then heads west to the Central time zone to compete in its first regular season tournament in seven years. The Saints are set to participate in the South Alabama Invitational in Mobile, Alabama, with matchups against UT Martin and 2019 NCAA Tournament team Indiana, as well as a pair of games against Tournament host South Alabama.
Siena’s month-long season-opening road trip continues with a four-game set at Eastern Kentucky (Feb. 28 – Mar. 1), a three-game series at Davidson (Mar. 7-8), a mini two-game set at Appalachian State (Mar. 10-11), and four games at Ohio (Mar. 13-15). The Saints return to the Northeast for the first time when they travel to ACC foe Boston College (Mar. 18), before opening conference action at defending MAAC Champion Quinnipiac for a three-game series (Mar. 21-22). Siena concludes its grueling road trip with a mid-week matchup at reigning Patriot League Champion Army West Point (Mar. 25)
The Saints embark upon their 20-game home schedule – the program’s most robust home slate in nine years – when they host Monmouth in the conference home-opening series Mar. 28-29 at Connors Park. Highlights to Siena’s home schedule include the back-end of a home-and-home with defending Atlantic 10 Champion Fordham Apr. 7, and a season-long 10-game homestand Apr. 25 – May 5. The Saints will also play host to Fairleigh Dickinson (Apr. 1, Apr. 28), UMass Lowell (Apr. 15), LIU (Apr. 21), Binghamton (May 5), and MAAC foes Canisius (Apr. 4-5), Rider (Apr. 25-26), and Manhattan (May 2-3) to comprise the home schedule.
Siena concludes the regular season with four road games at Niagara (May 9-10) and Hartford (May 13) as the Saints look to make a return to the MAAC Tournament May 20-23. The top-six finishers in the 11-team MAAC will qualify for the double-elimination tournament which will be held at Richmond County Bank Ballpark in Staten Island, New York for the third straight year this spring.
The Saints return seven starting position players from last year’s squad which posted an 18-33 overall record and finished seventh in the MAAC with an even 12-12 league mark. Siena is set to welcome 12 newcomers to the program this spring, including 10 true freshmen.
