Tigers announce 2012 schedule

By Adam Douglas

Sports Editor

   

Joe Murphy

 

Entering his 8th season at the helm of the Tiger baseball team, head coach Daron Schoenrock has a tough non-conference schedule prepared for his young team.

The University of Memphis baseball team will have a tough non-conference schedule ahead of them in 2012 thanks to games against eight clubs that advanced to the 2011 NCAA Tournament. They will also feature 30 home games, including a clash with the University of Tennessee at FedEx Park, eighth-year head coach Daron Schoenrock announced Wednesday.

"Every schedule is unique in college baseball, in the fact that you start planning a schedule far more in advance," Schoenrock said. "A lot of these opponents we started working on in 2008 or 2010."

The Tigers' 2012 schedule features 25 matchups against nine teams that clipped 30 wins last season and six games against 40-win programs in Conference USA foes Rice and East Carolina. Memphis will play 18 games against 2012 NCAA Tournament qualifiers, eight of which will be played at home. The Tigers will play 29 games at FedEx Park and one game, against Ole Miss, at AutoZone Park on April 24.

"When you put a schedule together, you don't have a grasp on what your team will be like that season, but this schedule is conducive to getting some young guys ready to play at home," Schoenrock said. "We are going to have new players in the mix behind the plate, at second base and in center field, as those positions were left void due to those players being drafted to play professionally."

For the third straight season, Memphis will open at FedEx Park. The Tigers open with a three-game set against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, a midweek contest against Austin Peay and a three-game series against Kennesaw State. A home-and-home series with Tennessee showcases the Tigers and Volunteers on the diamond for the first time since the 1995 season. The Tigers begin a five-game road trip in Knoxville, Tenn., on April 4 against the Volunteers. Memphis will host Tennessee for the first time since 1993, when the two teams battle on May 9 at FedEx Park. 

"I like the fact that we play at home a lot early in the season, because it gets us ready for the grind of the season," Schoenrock said. "And with Tennessee, there was a change in coaching staffs. I had this game in the works with the previous coaching staff, and when the new staff came in, we solidified it – it's huge for our local Memphis fan base to play and have a home-and-home series with them."

The Tigers return 18 letter-winners from the 2011 squad that posted Memphis' fourth 30-win season since 1995. Five position players who earned 40-plus starts return and two-thirds of the weekend starting rotation will take the mound in 2012. Schoenrock believes that though this team is relatively young, its expectations are high.  

"I always expect us to compete for a C-USA title," Schoenrock said. "Four out of my seven years here we've finished either third or fourth in conference, and that's a big accomplishment for the level of competition in this conference."