The Arizona baseball team, fresh off its appearance at the 2004 College World Series, will begin its fall schedule Friday playing a total of 15 intra squad games at Sancet Stadium over a span of three weeks. Fall ball is open to the public.
The Wildcats' quest to get back to Omaha, Neb. officially begins Feb. 4, 2005, when it faces New Mexico at Sancet Stadium in the team's season opener.
The spring schedule, released yesterday, features a tough non-conference slate including a trip to Fullerton, Calif., for a three-game series against the defending-national-champion Cal State Fullerton Titans
The Wildcats are also scheduled to play a home series against College World Series runner-up Texas. In all, the Wildcats will play 25 of their 56 regular season games against schools that competed in the postseason last year.
After opening the season with three games against the Lobos, the first month of the schedule features a weekend series against Northern Colorado, a trip to Texas-Pan Am, a pair of non-conference games against rival Arizona State in Tucson and a three-game home set vs. UC-Riverside.
The beginning of March finds a pair of schools that haven't been to Tucson in quite some time paying a visit to the Old Pueblo. The Longhorns will repay Arizona's 2003 trip to Austin with a three-game series at Sancet. Texas hasn't played a game in Tucson since defeating the Wildcats twice in the 1962 District 6 playoffs.
Mississippi State, led by former UA graduate assistant coach Ron Polk come to Tucson for the first time since 1981, for a three game set. Polk is on pace to reach 1,200 wins this season and has made seven College World Series appearances. Polk has taken a team to Omaha at least once in each of the last four decades.
Following the series against the Bulldogs, Arizona will host Nevada-Las Vegas for a pair of games before heading off to California for a three-game meeting with Cal-State Fullerton.
The end of the month marks the beginning of Pac-10 play as 2004 NCAA regional participant Washington comes to Tucson March 24 for the conference opener.
NCAA regional play will begin on June 2 at sites to be determined, followed by super-regionals on June 9-12. The College World Series in Omaha, Neb. will run June 16-26.