Friday, January 17, 2003

Baseball Announces 2003 Schedule

he Florida International baseball team announced its 2003 schedule today. Eight NCAA postseason teams will be a part of the demanding schedule, including cross-town rival Miami (Fla.) and Sun Belt Conference foes South Alabama, New Mexico State and Lousiana-Lafayette. The Golden Panthers also face UCF, Harvard, Bethune-Cookman and Florida Atlantic. Seven of those teams visit FIU's University Park Field, including Super-Regional participants Miami (Fla.) and Florida Atlantic.

The schedule is marked by a month-long stretch in which FIU faces only NCAA Regional participants. From April 8 to May 4, the Golden Panthers face Bethune-Cookman, Miami (Fla.), Louisiana-Lafayette, New Mexico State and South Alabama.

The Golden Panthers open the season with an early home series against Florida A&M at University Park, January 24 and 25. That begins a stretch of twenty-eight games, twenty of which are home games, over the next 2 months. NCAA participant Bethune-Cookman, who ended FIU's season in 2002, comes to University Park for a three-game series February 21-23 before hosting FIU on a return trip April 8-9. Other non-conference games of note include Miami (Feb. 5, Apr. 16), Florida Atlantic (Feb. 12, 19, 26, Mar. 5), Harvard (Mar. 25) and UCF (Feb. 8-9).

The Golden Panthers don't leave the state of Florida until March 21, when they begin conference play against Arkansas-Little Rock. FIU then hosts Western Kentucky March 28-30 before traveling to Murfreesboro, Tenn. for a three game series with Middle Tennessee, April 4-6. The Golden Panthers also travel to take on Sun Belt opponents Louisiana-Lafayette (Apr. 18-20) and New Orleans (May 9-11). New Mexico State (Apr. 25-27), South Alabama (May 2-4) and Arkansas State (May 16-18) all come to University Park to close out the home schedule.

The Golden Panthers are coming off a 41-20 season in which Head Coach Danny Price earned his 900th career coaching win and a school-record sixth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance. This season, FIU will look to improve upon last year's finish on the strength of eight returning pitchers, led by second-team Preseason All-American Derek DeCarlo (Miami, Southridge HS). The staff also boasts two of Baseball America's top 50 players in each of their respective classes, junior Josh Banks (Arnold, MD) and senior Andrew Edwards (Queens, NY).