Tennessee baseball coach Todd Raleigh announced Saturday that the Vols will open the 2009 campaign with a three-game home series against Oregon State. The teams also will meet in Oregon for a three-game set in 2010.
Oregon State won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007, two of the last three Pac-10 Conference titles and appeared in the NCAA College World Series three straight times from 2005-07.
“Any time you get to play a team that has won the national championship two out of the last three years, that’s a great opportunity for your program,” Raleigh said. “With 2009 being the 100th season of UT baseball, we wanted to make this a special opening series for our alumni and fans. We are really making an effort to upgrade our non-conference schedule.”
Tennessee fans will get their first official glimpse of the new-look Robert M. Lindsay Field at Lindsey Nelson Stadium when the Vols open against the Beavers Feb. 20-22, 2009. The stadium is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar renovation project.
A state-of-the-art coaching complex and player development facility is nearing completion down the right-field line. A new seating addition, restroom facility and party pavilion down the right-field line also will be ready for the Oregon State series next February.
And when the Vols and Beavers take the field to open the season, they will do so on a brand new natural-grass playing surface that is currently being installed to replace the field that has been in use since 1993.
Raleigh and Oregon State coach Pat Casey also announced that the Vols will be traveling to Oregon in 2010 for a three-game series against the Beavers. Dates and a site for that series, called the Papé Grand Slam, have yet to be announced.
OSU hosted Georgia in the 2008 Papé Grand Slam in Portland, with the three-game attendance total topping out at 29,332.
Tennessee has not faced a Pac-10 opponent since a 4-2 loss to Arizona State at the 2005 College World Series. The last time UT hosted a Pac-10 opponent in the regular season was March of 1999, when the Vols won two of three games against California in Knoxville
Phillip Fulmer through the years
Barbara Dooley and Pat Summitt Go Red…
Tyler Summitt through the years
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
Comments » 6
vol4gzus writes:
Lets all Raleigh around the mound VOLS!
snowvol writes:
One thing the Raleigh can do to upgrade the look of the program: Get rid of the beer softball league uniforms. UT has got to have the absolute worst uniforms in all of college baseball. They look like what you see guys wearing in Brooklyn or on the south side of Chicago. Only the guys I'm talking about are in their 50's, eaten a few too many Italian sausages and can't play the game.
Look at schools like Bama and, for that matter, Oregon State. Simple, classy...baseball uniforms. They don't look like they just showed up from a county fair.
cat54 writes:
Can't wait to see the Beavers in action! Love Pat Casey! He has a #1 program at OSU and he's a class act himself. I'm glad to see a Pac-10 team come to play the Vols.
sdye16#641965 writes:
Um, are you talking about the new uniforms UT has, snowvol? Raleigh did change them last year when he first got here to make them look more professional, unlike the old ones they used to wear which looked like high school uniforms. These new uniforms are great looking.
snafu14u#241639 writes:
Beaver belivers!!!!! Very good baseball program out here.It will be a tough series. Go Vols. bonzaivol
Virgil_Tutwiler writes:
The way construction has been zooming around at LNS- expect the new grass to be ready for play by no later than April 2010.
And no, the Delmonico uniforms were better than the Raleigh uniforms. The new uniforms look like Clemson rejects and most MLB uniforms from 70s
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