College Baseball: Serrano set to return to face UCI
The Anteaters’ schedule includes three home dates with Tennessee, led by former skipper.
The UC Irvine baseball team will open its 2015 home schedule against Tennessee, which is coached by former Anteaters head man Dave Serrano.
The three-game nonconference series Feb. 27 through March 1 against the Volunteers, who also include former UCI assistant coach Greg Bergeron, follows consecutive weekend road series at Fresno State (Feb. 13-15) and Cal (Feb. 20-22).
UCI also has three-game nonconference home series against San Jose State (March 13-15) and Cal State Bakersfield (March 20-22), in addition to a three-game nonconference road sets against Texas San Antonio (March 6-8) and Minnesota (May 1-3).
The Anteaters, who reached the 2014 College World Series, open Big West Conference play with a three-game home series against Hawaii (March 27-29).
Additional conference home series are scheduled against Long Beach State (April 10-12), UC Davis (April 17-19) and defending conference champion Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (May 8-10).
The annual Big West series with conference and Orange County rival Cal State Fullerton is set for April 24-26.
Coach Mike Gillespie’s ‘Eaters have home-and-home series against USC, UCLA and San Diego. UCI has three games with San Diego State and one against Loyola Marymount.
The March 10 home contest against USC is the first of 11 consecutive home games for UCI, which plays more than three straight at home only one other instance (a four-game stretch beginning with Cal Poly on May 8.
The Anteaters, who have 30 of their 56 regular-season games on the road, conclude the regular season at Cal State Northridge (May 21-23).
Gillespie, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assn. Coach of the Year, recently signed a four-year extension after leading the team to a 41-25 record in 2014.
UCI defeated UNLV and ousted No. 1 national seed Oregon State at the Corvallis Regional last spring, before sweeping Big 12 champion Oklahoma State at the Stillwater Super Regional to punch its ticket to Omaha for the second time in the program’s Division I history.
— From staff reports