Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Saluki Softball announces spring schedule
10/15/2014 | 12:00:00 | Softball
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois softball program announced its 2015 schedule on Wednesday. The team will host 19 home games and face seven teams that made the NCAA Tournament last season.
"We're at a point in our program where we need to face quality competition all the time," head coach Kerri Blaylock said. "We wanted to go to new venues; we wanted to face teams in up-and-coming conferences that are getting multiple NCAA Tournament bids."
The nonconference schedule starts with four road tournaments at Charleston Southern, Kennesaw State, Ole Miss and Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. SIU will also host the Coach B Classic before conference play starts.
SIU's non-conference slate includes six NCAA Tournament teams from a year ago: BYU, Kentucky, SIU-Edwardsville, Charleston Southern, Lipscomb and DePaul. Kentucky went to the College World Series for the first time in program history last year and won 50 games, and DePaul had a final RPI of 27 and posted 44 wins. Two of the first three games of the year for SIU are against a 30-win Ohio State team from a year ago.
For the 29th year, SIU will host the Coach B Classic. Southern's home season starts with the tournament on March 7-8 at Charlotte West Stadium; the Salukis welcome DePaul, Northern Illinois and Murray State to Carbondale for the two-day tournament.
Conference play starts March 14-15 when Bradley-last year's MVC representative in the NCAA Tournament-comes to Carbondale. The Salukis play at Charlotte West Stadium each of the first two weekends of conference play; defending MVC champion Wichita State comes to Carbondale the next week.
After playing the Shockers, SIU is on the road four of the next five weekends in conference play. SIU travels to Northern Iowa and Illinois State before coming home to play Drake. After that, SIU is back on the road to Loyola and Indiana State before returning to face Missouri State in the last regular season action of the season.
"Every team in our conference is tough; it doesn't matter if you face them at home or on the road," Blaylock said. "The league is stacked, but our kids are used to that and are looking forward to it."
After MVC play starts, SIU's mid-week nonconference opponents are similar to a year ago, with Austin Peay, Lipscomb, Saint Louis, Murray State, SIUE, SEMO, and Eastern Illinois all on the schedule.
The MVC tournament will be hosted by Wichita State on May 7-9, and the NCAA tournament starts on May 15-17.
