Athletics

Baseball Set to Begin 2009 Season on Friday

January 21, 2009

SHREVEPORT, La. – No. 15 LSUS will begin a grueling 2009 baseball schedule on Friday afternoon when they face the University of Mobile Rams in a three-game conference series at Mobile.

The 2009 schedule should present plenty of challenges for a veteran LSUS squad, beginning with a season-opening series versus last year’s Gulf Coast Athletic Conference regular season champions.  The two GCAC preseason favorites will match up in the season opener on Friday (2:00 P.M) before squaring off in a double-header on Saturday afternoon.  LSUS received 7 first-place votes in the GCAC preseason poll, while the Rams finished with 5 first-place votes.

The Pilots will open up the 2009 home schedule, which features 30 games at Pilot Field, on Jan. 30 with a non-conference weekend series versus LSU-Alexandria.  NCAA Division II powerhouse Southern Arkansas will close out the four-game homestand for the Pilots on Feb. 4.

LSUS re-enters GCAC action on Feb. 6 when they travel to Jackson, Miss., to face the preseason No. 25 Belhaven Blazers in a series that could shape up the GCAC race early on in the season.

Following the Belhaven series, the Pilots begin their longest homestand of the season (Feb. 13-Mar. 14) and will play 19 of their next 21 games at the friendly confines of Pilot Field, including conference series with William Carey (Feb. 13-14), Tougaloo College (Feb. 20-21), Loyola-NO (Feb. 27-28), Spring Hill College (Mar. 7-8) and Mobile (Mar. 13-14). 

Sandwiched in between those dates are non-conference home dates with Louisiana College (Feb. 17), Bellevue University (Mar. 1) and Texas College (Mar. 10).

LSUS will travel to No. 17 Texas Wesleyan on Feb. 23 for a double-header versus the Rams, with the Rams returning the home-and-home series on Mar. 31 at LSUS.

The Pilots play back-to-back games in Alexandria on Mar. 18 and Mar. 21 versus Louisiana College and LSU-Alexandria before jumping back into GCAC play on Mar. 27 and 28 at home against Belhaven.

LSUS closes out the season with 12 of their final 14 games on the road, while playing just one time during the month of April at home (Apr. 8 vs. Houston-Victoria).  The Pilots will travel to William Carey (Apr. 3-4), Tougaloo (Apr. 10-11), Loyola-NO (Apr. 18-19) and Spring Hill (Apr. 24-25) to finish up the regular season.

The 2009 GCAC Tournament is scheduled for Apr. 29 to May 2 at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, where the Pilots will look to win their fourth consecutive tournament title.

All LSUS baseball games this season can be heard live over the internet via Teamline (http://www.teamline.cc/teampage?teamcode=7111), courtesy of play-by-play announcer Mark Cantrell.  Cantrell is in his seventh season as the voice for LSUS baseball.

Please visit the LSUS Athletics home page or the LSUS Baseball home page on gamedays for links to the broadcasts.