The VMI Keydets announced their 2016 baseball schedule Thursday, a 55-game slate that will open with four games in Winston-Salem, N.C. the weekend of Feb. 19. The slate features 2015 regional qualifiers in Radford, Mercer, VCU and defending national champion Virginia, as well as in-state opponents Old Dominion, Longwood, Richmond, Virginia Tech and James Madison.
VMI’s 25 road games begins with a tournament at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, where the Keydets get things started with a Feb. 19 doubleheader against UMBC. The twinbill will double the number of games VMI has played all-time against the Retrievers, following a 15-5 Keydet victory in 1998.
VMI then plays Georgetown on Feb. 20 and Wake Forest the following day to round out opening weekend, before traveling to DavenportField to face the defending College World Series Champions, the Virginia Cavaliers, on Feb. 23. VMI will be looking for its third consecutive win over UVA.
All told, the Keydets are scheduled to play 30 games at the friendly confines of Gray-Minor Stadium, beginning with a three-game series against Lafayette that opens Feb. 26. It continues a stretch of the two teams playing every other season that has run since 2002.
A quick trip to Richmond is set for March 1 before the Keydets come home for a 12-game homestand that, if all the games are played, would be VMI’s longest stretch of consecutive games at home since 2006.
It includes single games with Longwood, now coached by former VMI Associate Head Coach Ryan Mau, and VCU, as well as three-game series with Binghamton, Maryland-Eastern Shore and Rider. The highlight, however, comes on March 8 when James Madison, coached by former longtime VMI skipper Marlin Ikenberry, comes to town for the beginning of a home and home (VMI goes to Harrisonburg April 12).
The Keydets finally leave Lexington on March 22, when they travel Norfolk to face Old Dominion in a two-game series, but the team comes right back to Gray-Minor Stadium to take on The Citadel Bulldogs for the opening weekend of SoCon play. VMI swept The Citadel last year at Riley Park.
March 29 brings the Virginia Tech Hokies to Lexington for only the second time in five years, and the Keydets wrap up their home and home series with Longwood the next day in Farmville. In addition to Mau’s presence on staff in Longwood, former Keydet pitcher Travis Thomas is currently serving as the team’s volunteer assistant coach.
The Keydets open April in Greensboro, N.C. against UNCG, and then face the Radford Highlanders in a non-conference road game on April 5. Radford, of course, is coming off a 2015 Regional appearance and its best season in program history.
Western Carolina comes to Lexington April 8-10, and after a game at James Madison in the midweek, VMI sojourns to Macon, Ga. to face the defending SoCon Champion Mercer Bears in a three-game set April 15-17.
Old Dominion visits Lexington April 19, and Wofford follows the next weekend, April 22-24. The Keydets then go to The Diamond to play VCU April 26 and take on ETSU on the road April 29-May 1, which leads the team into a break for final exams.
That break ends with a May 11 home game against Radford and a three-game set with Furman (May 13-15), also at home. That will, in fact, end the VMI home schedule, as a four-game road trip closes out the year. VMI battles Virginia Tech at English Field on May 17 before facing Samford in Birmingham, Ala., to wrap up the year (May 19-21).
The 2016 SoCon Baseball Championship is set for May 24-29 in Greenville, S.C., and will take place at Fluor Field, home of the Greenville Drive.
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