News digest, Jan. 25

Spartans favored in Big South

USC Upstate has been picked to win the Big South Conference championship in a preseason vote of league coaches.

The Spartans of coach Mike McGuire received seven of nine first-place votes in voting by league coaches. Winthrop finished in a tie for fourth with UNC Asheville, while Presbyterian was sixth and Charleston Southern seventh.

Big South Conference
Preseason coaches poll

1. USC Upstate. 2. Gardner-Webb. 3 High Point. 4. (tie), Winthrop, UNC Asheville. 6. Presbyterian. 7. Charleston Southern. 8. Longwood. 9. Radford.

Preseason all-conference
OF: Robbie Burnett, UNC Asheville; Bret Ahalt, High Point; Daniel Gernon, USC Upstate; Dylan Bacot, UNC Asheville.

IF: Grant Sherrod, USC Upstate; Brody Fahr, Presbyterian; Cael Chatham, High Point; Alec Burns, Gardner-Webb; Adam Stuart, High Point.
C: Nicholas Badillo, Winthrop.
DH: Jace Rinehart, USC Upstate.
Util: Noah Sullivan, USC Upstate.
SP: Gus Hughes, High Point; Henry Proger, USC Upstate; Mathieu Curtis, USC Upstate; Ethan Walker, Longwood.

RP: Jake Cubbler, USC Upstate; Tanner Smith, Presbyterian; Justin Honeycutt, UNC Asheville.
Player of the year: Robbie Burnett, UNC Asheville.
Pitcher of the year: Gus Hughes, High Point
Big South 

Four schools host multiple-team events

Coastal Carolina, Presbyterian, USC Upstate and Wofford all will play host to multiple teams over the course of a weekend in February.

* Coastal once again is the site of the Baseball at the Beach Tournament, which has been played in Conway in February for several seasons. This year there are two weekends. Duke, George Mason and Indiana will join the Chanticleers from Feb. 16-18 in a round-robin type setup. A week later, Ball State, Cincinnati and Illinois are the other competitors.

 

* Wofford will play host to Towson and Bucknell on Feb. 16-18 for a total of five games at Russell C. King Field.

* A week later, USC Upstate will play host to the One Spartanburg Inc. Classic at Harley Stadium Feb. 23-25 with Quinnipiac, Canisius and St. Joseph's the competition.

* While I don't know if the games will be promoted as part of the One Spartanburg Classic, Presbyterian will play host to those same three teams in a rotation along with Gardner-Webb just across the border in Boiling Springs, N.C.

Baseball at the Beach

Springs Brooks Stadium, Conway

Feb. 16

Duke vs. Indiana, 11 a.m.

George Mason at Coastal Carolina, 4 p.m.

Feb. 17

George Mason vs. Duke, 11 a.m.

Indiana at Coastal Carolina, 3 p.m.

Feb. 18

Indiana vs. George Mason, 11 a.m.

Duke at Coastal Carolina, 3 p.m.

Feb. 23

Ball State vs. Cincinnati, 11 a.m.

Illinois at Coastal Carolina, 3 p.m.

Illinois vs. Ball State, 7 p.m.

Feb. 24

Cincinnati vs. Illinois, noon

Ball State at Coastal Carolina, 4 p.m.

Feb. 25

Cincinnati at Coastal Carolina, 1 p.m.

Russell C. King Field, Spartanburg

Feb. 16

Towson at Wofford, 5:30 p.m.

Feb. 17

Towson vs. Bucknell, noon

Bucknell at Wofford, 4 p.m.

Feb. 18

Towson vs. Bucknell, 10 a.m.

Towson at Wofford, 2 p.m.

One Spartanburg Classic

Feb. 23

Quinnipiac at USC Upstate, 3 p.m.

Canisius at Presbyterian, 4 p.m.

St. Joseph’s at Gardner-Webb, 4 p.m.

Feb. 24

Canisius at USC Upstate, 2 p.m.

Quinnipiac at Gardner-Webb, 2 p.m.

St. Joseph’s at Presbyterian, 2 p.m.

Feb. 25

Canisius at Gardner-Webb, 1 p.m.

Quinnipiac at Presbyterian, 1 p.m.

St. Joseph’s at USC Upstate, 1 p.m.

Neutral sites busy

Greenville's Fluor Field, SRP Park in North Augusta and Lexington County Baseball Stadium all will host multiple neutral-site games this season.

* Michigan State is back at its seasonal home away from home in Greenville for games the first two weekends of March. Florida State is among the competitors March 1-3, with Western Carolina on the docket March 8-10.

Later in the season, Clemson plays USC Upstate and South Carolina faces both USC Upstate and Presbyterian in downtown Greenville.

* SRP Park in North Augusta has at least five games, including two involving Palmetto State schools. USC faces Georgia State March 12 and USC Aiken plays neighboring rival Augusta March 26.

* Lexington County Baseball Stadium has a busy stretch in March as several snowbird teams play multiple teams over an eight-day span. In addition, Florence-Darlington Tech, USC Salkehatchie and USC Sumter will play games there to get familiar with the facility, which serves as site of the NJCAA Region 10 Tournament May. The Lexington stadium also is home field for P27 Academy, a high school/postgraduate program.

* The only college game I can find for Segra Park in Columbia is the March 2 Clemson-South Carolina game.

* I have been unable to find a schedule for college games at The Ripken Experience in Myrtle Beach.

* Two games involving state teams are set for Truist Field in Uptown Charlotte. South Carolina meets North Carolina April 9 and Clemson faces Charlotte May 7.  The view of Charlotte's skyscrapers makes for a beautiful background setting.

All games and sites are subject to changes. For instance, a few games were added to the Fluor Field schedule during the season in 2023.

Fluor Field, Greenville

First Pitch Invitational
March 1

Illinois vs. Florida State, 2 p.m.

Western Michigan vs. Michigan State, 6 p.m.

March 2

Western Michigan vs. Illinois, 2 p.m.

Florida State vs. Michigan State, 6 p.m.

March 3

Illinois vs. Michigan State, 10 a.m.

Western Michigan vs. Florida State, 2 p.m.

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March 8

VCU vs. Michigan State, 2 p.m.

Western Michigan vs. Western Carolina, 5 p.m.

March 9

Western Carolina vs. Michigan State, DH, 10 a.m.

Western Michigan vs. VCU, 6 p.m.

March 10

Western Michigan vs. Michigan State, 10 a.m.

VCU vs. Western Carolina, 2 p.m.

March 19

South Carolina vs. USC Upstate, 6 p.m.

March 20

Clemson vs. Presbyterian, 6 p.m.

April 2

Clemson vs. USC Upstate, 6 p.m.

SRP Park, North Augusta

March 2

Lincoln vs. Paine, DH, 4 p.m.

March 5

Georgia Southern vs. Georgia, 6:35 p.m.

March 12

South Carolina vs. Georgia State, 7 p.m.

March 26

USC Aiken vs. Augusta, 6:35 p.m.

Segra Park, Columbia

March 2

Clemson vs. South Carolina, 4 p.m.

Truist Field, Charlotte

April 9

South Carolina vs. North Carolina, 7 p.m.

May 7

Clemson vs. Charlotte, 6 p.m.

Lexington County Baseball Stadium, Lexington

Feb. 12
Columbia International JV at P27 Academy

Feb. 28

Georgia College vs. Mount Olive, 3 p.m.

March 4

USC Sumter at P27 Academy, 3 p.m.

March 9

Trinity vs. Oswego

Swarthmore vs. Arcadia

Swarthmore vs. Case

March 10

Trinity vs. Ithaca

Case vs Oswego

Oswego vs. Arcadia

March 11

Trinity vs. Swarthmore

Swarthmore vs. Oswego

Case vs. Ithaca

March 12

Swarthmore vs. Arcadia

Ithaca vs. Arcadia

Trinity vs. Case

March 13

Oswego vs. Arcadia

Swarthmore vs. Ithaca

March 14

Case vs Swarthmore

Ithaca vs. Oswego

March 15

Case vs. Ithaca

Case vs. Oswego

March 16

Oswego vs. Ithaca

April 3

Caldwell Tech vs. Florence-Darlington Tech, 3 p.m.
April 23
Columbia International at P27 Academy

April 24

Erskine JV at P27 Academy, DH, 3 p.m.

April 27

USC Salkehatchie vs. Florence-Darlington Tech, 1 p.m.