MANHATTAN - Kansas State head baseball coach Brad Hill announced the team’s 2006 schedule Tuesday, which includes 20 games against teams that advanced to 2005 NCAA Regional play and nine games against teams that advanced to last season’s College World Series. The Wildcats open the 2006 slate February 17 in Arlington, Texas, against the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles, a 2005 regional team.
“We are looking forward to the 2006 season,” Hill said. “The Big 12 is such a deep and talented baseball league every year and that is shown by the number of teams from our league that advance to Omaha come June. We need to prepare ourselves in the preseason for a tough conference stretch late in the season. But, we look forward to the challenge and are looking forward to hosting a number of games here at Tointon Stadium.”
The Wildcats, after opening with three games at the UTA Invitational in Texas, then head down to Lafayette, La., for the ULL Tournament. K-State returns home for a 15-game home stand with the season home-opener scheduled for February 28 against South Dakota State. The Wildcats host Eastern Illinois, Xavier, Wichita State, North Dakota State and Wisconsin-Milwaukee during the stretch and, after a weekend trip to Missouri, host three more teams to give them 23 of 26 straight games at home.
The Big 12 schedule begins March 24-26 at Missouri as the Wildcats open up conference play in Columbia for the second time in three seasons. After hosting Chicago State for two midweek games, the Wildcats host 2005 College World Series participant Nebraska (March 31-April 2) and defending national champion Texas (April 7-9) on consecutive weekends.
Other Big 12 home series include Kansas (April 22-23), Oklahoma State (April 28-30) and 2005 College World Series participant Baylor (May 19-21), while road series include Texas Tech (April 13-15), Oklahoma (May 5-7) and Texas A&M (May 12-14).
In all, the Wildcats will play 31 home games and face nine teams that advanced to the postseason last year.
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