Monticello Live

For the third time in the last four seasons, the University of Arkansas at Monticello baseball team is set to open its season at Minute Maid Park as a part of the 2016 Houston Winter Invitational.

The Weevils open the 2016 schedule on Friday, February 5 at 10 a.m. against Tarleton State, followed by a 2 p.m. matchup with Central Missouri on Saturday and a 6 p.m. game against St. Mary’s on Sunday.

Live stats for all three games can be accessed at www.UAMsports.com/coverage.aspx.

Including the three games at Minute Maid Park this weekend, UAM’s first seven games of the season are against perennial national tournament contenders.

Tarleton State opened its season last weekend by taking two of three games from No. 16 Henderson State on the road in Arkadelphia. Central Missouri, owner of 24 conference titles, 16 regional championships and two national titles, has won at least 30 games each season for 22 straight years. St. Mary’s won two of three games against Arkansas Tech this past weekend, and is ranked as high as No. 15 in the national polls.

Minute Maid Park, the home of MLB’s Houston Astros, is once again the host of this prestigious invitational. The Weevils enjoyed great success the last time in Houston, posting a 4-0 record against national tournament contenders to start the 2014 season.

UAM’s 2016 cast features 10 returning starters from last year’s team and only two new faces to the projected opening day lineup in second baseman Nick Piraino and designated hitter Jake Bever. The rest of the projected starters include Travis Steinke at catcher, Mitchell Dornblut at first base, C.J. Womack at third base, Evan Comeau at short stop, Kevin Fitzpatrick in left field, Brian Ray in centerfield and Corey Wood in right field.

The pitching rotation will be led by senior Zach McKnight. Sixth-year head coach John Harvey expects Gavin Johnston, Grant Black, Kris Brown, Chad Bradford and Braden Chambers to compete for the other starting spots. Dawson Moser, Kregg Snook and Ben Aldridge will be UAM’s go-to guys out of the bullpen to start the season.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2016 at 6:37 am and is filed under Site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.