Bulls Announce Challenging Yet Opportunistic 2019 Schedule
TAMPA, DECEMBER 14, 2018 – Second-year head coach
Billy Mohl is happy to announce the 2019 USF baseball schedule.
An extremely challenging slate features 55 contests, 30 being played in front of the home crowd. USF will meet schools from seven different conferences, play a rare nonconference road series and get a unique experience against a familiar Bay area team.
"We are all looking forward to this schedule," said coach Mohl. "This schedule is going to challenge us right out of the gate featuring a couple series and two midweek games against regional teams from last year."
0-100 Real Quick
The Bulls have one of their toughest stretches to open a season in quite some time, facing four teams that went to a regional right out of the gate. For the sixth time in the last seven seasons, USF begins the year at home and will host a three-game series against a consistent Samford program out of the SOCON Feb. 15-17. The Bulldogs went 37-26 last season, won their conference tournament and defeated the seventh overall national seed Florida State to begin the Tallahassee regional. Samford has won no fewer than 32 games in each of the last five seasons.
A veteran-laden USF squad will continue to be tested early, as it hosts Florida on Feb. 19. The 2017 national champions last played at USF in 2015. The last three meetings between the two programs have been extremely entertaining, as Florida has narrowly outscored USF, 26-24. The teams played an exhibition in late October in Lakeland at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, splitting two six-inning games.
For the first time since 2015 and just the third time over the last 10 years, USF will experience a road series when it travels to Chapel Hill for a three-game set at North Carolina Feb. 22-24. The Tar Heels and Bulls opened the 2018 campaign in Tampa, as the hosts took the season opener over then-No. 6 UNC in impressive fashion, 4-3. It will also mark just the second time in the last 10 years that the Bulls are leaving the state of Florida for a nonconference game, last doing so in 2015 when they went to Illinois for a weekend series.
The Bulls return to Tampa for the conclusion of the initial gauntlet, welcoming Florida State on Feb. 26. The Seminoles and legendary head coach Mike Martin have played at USF Baseball Stadium just three times since 1999. The 2019 trip will be his last, as Martin is set to retire at the end of his 40
th season in the FSU dugout.
The game against the Seminoles is also the first of 26 straight games in the Sunshine State, 18 of which are at home. USF hosts Western Michigan (March 1-3) for the first time since 1996, then will switch things up on March 5 when it heads to Port Charlotte for a meeting with the Tampa Bay Rays. As part of the Rays' spring training, the game will count as a regular season contest for USF. Learn more about the matchup with the Rays
HERE.
The Bulls are then back home for three games against Liberty March 8-10. The Flames went 32-26 in 2018 and last faced the Bulls in 2016. The first true in-state road trip is March 12 at Jacksonville University, which went 40-21 last year and earned an appearance in the Gainesville Regional. The Bulls have a quick turnaround, traveling south to Daytona Beach for a contest at Bethune-Cookman on March 13. USF is back in Tampa just two days later for a three-game set against Dartmouth (March 15-17), then goes back to Jacksonville on March 19 for a meeting with North Florida.
American Made
"I believe this schedule will prepare us for the grind of American Athletic Conference play," said coach Mohl. "Continuing to improve and get deeper, the conference as a whole ranked fourth in RPI last year."
American Athletic Conference action gets underway March 22-24 when the Bulls host Cincinnati. USF heads to the same field that hosted its final game of 2018, taking on Stetson in DeLand on March 26. The Hatters hosted a regional for the first time in program history last year, advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals in Chapel Hill and finished 48-13.
USF then will host the defending league champion East Carolina March 29-31. April begins at home against FGCU (April 2) leading into the War On I-4, which heads back to Orlando April 5-7. The stretch of games within state lines finishes against Bethune-Cookman on April 10.
The Bulls are back in the air for a trip to New Orleans and three games at Tulane April 12-14. USF isn't gone for long, as it gets comfortable with eight of the next nine games at home. Another matchup against UNF (April 16) comes before the final nonconference series, as USF hosts the Citadel (April 18-20). The Bulls are at FGCU (April 24), then returns home for a key series against Houston (April 26-28) and a midweek test against the Hatters (April 30).
Much like previous years, May opens with a lengthy road trip. USF is in Memphis (May 3-5), at Florida (May 7) and at UConn (May 10-12) to open the final month of the regular season. The Bulls close out the season in Tampa for the first time since 2016. The final week begins against Jacksonville (May 14) and concludes against a Wichita State club making its first ever trip to Tampa (May 16-18).
The American Athletic Conference Championship will again be at Spectrum Field in Clearwater May 21-26. The NCAA Regionals are set for May 31-June 3. The Super Regionals are June 7-9 and the College World Series is scheduled for June 15-26. The full 2019 schedule can be found
HERE.
What to Expect in 2019
Home run leader (16) and all-conference selection from 2018, senior first baseman
Joe Genord (Lake Worth, Fla.) leads a great nucleus of returning veteran talent. An experienced outfield welcomes back contributors like senior
Kyle Phillips (Orlando), who finished second on the team with a .333 average and was named to the DeLand Regional All-Tournament team. Seniors
Garrett Zech (Naples, Fla.) and
Chris Chatfield (Riverview, Fla.) have a combined 334 games played on their resume.
Senior second baseman
JD Dutka (Suwanee, Ga.) hit .299 with 17 doubles last year and senior catcher
Tyler Dietrich (Naples, Fla.) caught every game in 2018. Junior righty
Collin Sullivan (Randolph, Mass.) will look to build off of a strong close to his sophomore campaign. He was named to the American Athletic Conference Championships All-Tournament team behind a complete-game gem against Wichita St. to help USF stave off elimination. The team isn't void of new talent, as 15 fresh faces consisting of eight freshmen and seven transfers make up almost half the roster.
Tickets for the 2019 USF baseball season can be found
HERE, or renewed
HERE. Season tickets will be $80 ($64 for USF Alumni, Faculty, or Staff), and there will be a Flex Pack option that includes 10 tickets for $30. For the Florida State and Florida matchups, the single game ticket prices will be $10. All other single game tickets will be $7 for ages 12 and over, and $5 for children under the age of 12.
About USF Baseball
The University of South Florida baseball team is one of the fastest rising programs in the country. The Bulls reached the NCAA Regionals in 2015 for the first time in 13 years and followed that success with a 42-19 record and second NCAA regional trip in three years in 2017. The Bulls continued the success under first-year head coach Billy Mohl in 2018, reaching 36 wins and advancing to the semifinals of the conference tournament for the first time since 2012, while being ranked in multiple polls for the final two months. USF earned its third NCAA Regional berth in the last four seasons and had six all-conference selections in 2018. The team had four players drafted in the 2018 MLB Draft, including the program's fourth first rounder, Shane McClanahan. Junior third baseman David Villar was taken in the 11th round after tallying 24 doubles and hitting better than .370, being named first team all-conference and an All-American. The USF Baseball program has won five conference titles and the Bulls have made 13 NCAA appearances.
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