Dec. 9, 2004

The Notre Dame baseball team has announced its schedule for the 2005 season, with highlights to include trips to Florida, Arizona and Texas, a lateseason visit from Southern California for a two-game series at Eck Stadium and three-game road series at fellow BIG EAST contenders Rutgers, Boston College, St. John’s and Pittsburgh. The Irish also are slated to face Purdue at South Bend’s Coveleski Stadium and will play a BIG EAST home series vs. Villanova in late April, corresponding with the Blue-Gold football weekend.

See the schedule link for the full 56-game listing (also check back later to und.com for a PDF version of the ’05 schedule).

Notre Dame will open the 2005 season in Orlando, playing four games at the University of Central Florida vs. the Golden Knights (Feb. 19-20) and Florida A&M (Feb. 18-19). The Irish own a 22-5 record in games played in Florida during the past five years (’00-’04) and have played in nine different Florida cities. Notre Dame previously played a pair of games at UCF in 1979 and most recently played in the 1998 ACC Blast at Disney’s Wide World of Sports Center.

The second weekend of the season will see Notre Dame head west for a three-game series vs. Dayton (Feb. 26-27) at HoHoKam Park, the Chicago Cubs spring training facility. The Irish and Flyers are former Midwestern Collegiate Conference rivals and have met 52 times previously, including the 2003 season opener (a 10-9 Notre Dame win, played at Arizona State).

The 2005 spring break trip to Texas will mark the 18th time in the last 26 seasons (dating back to ’69) that the Irish baseball team has visited the lone star state – including nine of 11 seasons in the Paul Mainieri era (all but ’00 and ’03, with a 36-16 record in Texas during the Mainieri era). The trip again will be split between action at two top minor-league parks.

Notre Dame will open the spring trip with its third appearance in the last four seasons at the Round Rock College Classic, played at the sparkling Dell Diamond (home of the Nolan Ryan-owned Round Rock Express). The Irish will face Texas A&M, Rice and Texas State (March 6-7) during their three-day schedule in Round Rock before heading south to the familiar destination of San Antonio.

The 2005 season will mark Notre Dame’s 17th visit to San Antonio since 1969 and ninth in the last 11 seasons. Notre Dame again will serve as the home team for the Alamo City Irish Baseball Classic at Wolff Stadium, facing Texas-San Antonio, Southwest Missouri State and Oral Roberts (March 9-11) before the championship and consolation games are played on March 12.

Notre Dame completes its stretch of 16 road games to open the season with a weekend of play in Evansville, Ind. The Irish will face Northern Illinois, Evansville and South Dakota State (March 17-19) before their home opener at Eck Stadium vs. Cincinnati, on March 22.

The pair of games vs. USC (6:05 night games, on Tues. and Wed., May 17-18) will continue a recent trend of top southern teams who have ventured to Eck Stadium to face the Irish in lateseason games – with the Trojans joining Miami (’99), Arizona State (’02) and UCF (’03) in that distinction.

Notre Dame and Purdue are scheduled to face one another at South Bend’s Coveleski Stadium – home of the single-A South Bend Silver Hawks – on Wednesday, April 20 (6:05 p.m.).

Notre Dame’s 2005 home BIG EAST series will feature games vs. Georgetown (March 24), Seton Hall (March 26), Connecticut (April 16-17), Villanova (April 23-24) and West Virginia (May 20-21). Other teams that will visit Eck Stadium include Western Michigan (March 29), Chicago State (March 30), Toledo (April 5), Bowling Green (April 12), Central Michigan (April 13), Valparaiso (April 21), Cleveland State (April 29-30) and Oakland (May 10), plus the aforementioned games vs. Cincinnati.

The team’s BIG EAST road slate includes series vs. Rutgers (April 2-3), Boston College (April 9-10; at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton, Mass.), St. John’s (May 7-8) and Pittsburgh (May 14-15).

The four-team BIG EAST Tournament again will be held in Bridgewater, N.J., at Commerce Bank Ballpark (May 26-28). The NCAA tournament regionals are set for June 3-5 and the super-regionals on June 10-12 (both at campus sites) while the College World Series will be June 17-27 at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Neb.