HANOVER, N.H. — Dartmouth baseball head coach
Bob Whalen announced the 2024 Big Green spring schedule today featuring trips to just about every corner of the United States as well as the full 21-game Ivy League slate and opponents from the Northeast.
The season begins in the Lone Star State as the Big Green open the campaign with a three-game series at Sam Houston from Conference USA beginning Friday, Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m. (CST). This will be the first meeting between the two schools on the diamond, and last year the Bearkats won 39 games and went 22-8 in the Western Athletic Conference, plus won the conference tournament to earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals, going 1-2 at LSU as the third seed.
The following weekend, Dartmouth travels to the Sunshine State for a three-game set at North Florida of the Atlantic Sun Conference. These squads originally locked horns eight years ago when the Ospreys dealt the Big Green a pair of losses, the second coming on a walk-off homer. Though the players on this year's team won't recall that encounter, Whalen (in his 35th year at the helm) will be looking to turn the tables on UNF.
For spring break, Dartmouth will head to the West Coast for seven games, starting with a lone showdown at Long Beach State (33-22 in 2024) on Wednesday, March 13 at 6:00 (PDT). The Big Green will also get four shots at taking down Loyola Marymount — the West Coast Conference regular-season champion last year — on March 14-17 as part of the trip.
"My philosophy has always been to play against the best competition you can schedule early in the season so you can reinforce your strengths, and identify your weaknesses, right away," Whalen said. "It's also more fun for the players to play against nationally ranked teams in great facilities. This allows both our players, and coaches, to spend time on exactly what we need to do in order to compete successfully in Ivy League play. Having a chance to compete for an Ivy Championship, and consistently playing meaningful games at the end of the season, is always our goal."
Although Dartmouth will return to the Northeast after its California trip, the road games will continue with the start of the Ivy League season with three-game series at both Yale and Cornell to finish the month of March.
The home opener finally arrives after 20 straight road games with three games against Columbia on April 6-7. Those contests begin a stretch of 11 home games out of the next 15 with conference series at Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park against Brown and Princeton. The only games outside of Hanover during that run will be a single contest at Boston College on April 10 and three games at Harvard.
The Ancient Eight slate will conclude with a series at the defending Ivy League champion, Penn, on May 4-5, before one final home game against Whalen's alma mater, Maine on Wednesday, May 8 at 3 p.m.
The double-elimination Ivy League Tournament will feature the top four teams in the final standings. The top-seeded team will serve as the host for the Ivy League Tournament starting on Friday, May 17.
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