2011 Auburn Baseball Scheduled Released

[AUSportTalk 4]

The defending Southeastern Conference Western Division

champion Auburn baseball team will play 26 games against teams that made

the 2010 NCAA Tournament as the team released the 2011 schedule on

Thursday. Auburn will play a total of 33 games at home, beginning with

the season-opener against Arkansas State on Friday, Feb. 18 at 6pm.

The opener is a part of the Auburn Tournament, which in its second

season will also include Virginia from the Atlantic Coast Conference and

UAB from Conference USA, which were both top-five conferences in 2010

according to WarrenNolan.com.

Auburn will also play in a pre-conference tournament at the College of

Charleston the weekend of March 4-6 before playing host to College World

Series participant Arizona State from March 11-13 at Plainsman Park.

“The 2011 schedule presents a great challenge to this young team as

we prepare for another quest to make the SEC Tournament and post-season

play,” Auburn Head Coach John Pawlowski said. “We host a tough

preseason tournament and we have a return trip from Arizona State which

should pose big challenges for the 17 new faces on our team as we head

into the rigors of the SEC schedule.”

The SEC slate begins on March 18 with Arkansas visiting Plainsman Park.

Of the five SEC teams that heads to Auburn this season, four of them

played in last season’s NCAA Tournament in Arkansas, Vanderbilt (April

1-3), Ole Miss (April 22-24) and Alabama (May 13-15). The other

conference foe to head to the Plains is Georgia (May 6-8).

Auburn will play at Mississippi State (March 25-27), at Kentucky (April

8-10), at LSU (April 15-17), at defending National Champion South

Carolina (April 29-May 1) and at Tennessee (May 19-21) in conference

play.

Midweek home-and-homes are scheduled with Jacksonville State (Feb. 22

and Mar. 22), Troy (Mar. 29 and Apr. 5), South Alabama (Apr. 20 and May

17) and Samford (Apr. 26 and May 10), with the first game of each series

being played at Plainsman Park and the second on the road.

The third annual Capital City Classic takes place on Tuesday, March 15

at Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium. Auburn has defeated Alabama in each

of the first two Classics.

The 2011 SEC Tournament returns to Hoover May 25-29 and NCAA Regionals

begin on June 2.