Baseball Announces 2019 Schedule

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- The Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi baseball program finalized its 2019 schedule Wednesday morning, solidifying a number of high-profile matchups with just under five months till first pitch. The Islanders open the season on Feb. 15 by hosting UT-Arlington in the first of the four-game series, kickoff Southland Conference play a just under a month later on March 8 at Incarnate Word and wrap up the year at UTRGV on May 14. 

Check out the full 2019 baseball schedule HERE.

The season-opening four-game series with UT-Arlington sets the tone for the Islanders' February/early March, as 11-of-13 matchups take place in Corpus Christi. Following an early road trip to UTSA, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi returns home to host its annual Kleburg Bank College Classic at Whataburger Field, facing off with BYU, Oral Roberts and Big Ten power Ohio State.

"The second weekend of the season is always a highlight for our players as well as the baseball fans from around South Texas," Islanders' head coach Scott Malone said. "The tournament at Whataburger Field has an outstanding group of teams and will create another great weekend of 'must see' baseball in Corpus Christi, especially considering the high-level competition traveling in from across the country."

While the annual tournament may serve as the highlight of the non-conference schedule, a number of other matchups stand out to baseball enthusiasts, both at home and on the road. For example, the Islanders wrap up a home-and-home against UTSA midway through April, travel up to Texas State the Wednesday following the tournament and host Eastern Michigan in a three-game weekend series to open March.

The big guns of the non-conference slate, though, come in the form of national powerhouses Texas A&M and the University of Texas; the Islanders travel to Blue Bell Park for battle with the Aggies on March 5 and host the Longhorns for the third consecutive season at Whataburger Field later on April 30.

"Texas A&M has consistently shown its prowess on the diamond for decades, and Blue Bell Park easily ranks as a Top Five venue in college baseball," Malone commented. "Big-time road matchups, like our visit to College Station in March, are major reasons this program attracts the quality athlete we currently have. As for UT-Austin, the chance to host a major program like the Longhorns is one of the reasons I took the job with A&M-Corpus Christi 12 years ago. We're talking about bringing together 6,000 baseball fans at Whataburger Field and thrusting our players and our program onto one of the greatest stages in college sports."

With Southland play igniting early in March, the Islanders get to work early on earning the program's first-ever conference title. According to Malone, though, A&M-Corpus Christi will face a new challenge with the conference slate this season: a bottom-heavy league schedule.

"My biggest takeaway from our Southland schedule is that it appears to be backloaded with many of the conference's traditional powers, including Southeastern Louisiana, Sam Houston State, and McNeese State," Malone pointed out. "This is a big change for us, especially since our schedule usually starts out with the heavyweights up front. Pitching this as a challenge to our players shouldn't be difficult, as our last nine games will be against programs that always fight their way into the postseason."

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