SALEM, Va. – Roanoke Baseball is set to kick off the 2019 campaign on Friday, Feb. 8 with a doubleheader at Methodist. The 2019 slate consists of 40 regular-season games, highlighted by 16 home contests, three preseason ranked opponents and two who were receiving votes.
Head Coach Matt McGuire has built a schedule featuring 16 home games that will be played at Haley Toyota Field at the Salem Red Sox Stadium. March is filled with 18 games, featuring a pair of games both at Emory University and Birmingham Southern before returning home as nine of their next 11 games will be in Salem.
Roanoke will play Messiah and receiving votes St. John Fisher February 16-17 in the opening home games on the season. Methodist was also receiving votes in the D3Baseball Preseason Poll along with No. 13 Christopher Newport, the Maroons head to Newport News Feb. 23-24 to take on the Captains.
The Maroons will open conference play hosting Hampden-Sydney in a doubleheader on Saturday, March 9.
Roanoke was picked No. 3 in the 2019 Old Dominion Athletic Conference Preseason Poll with 96 points, receiving one first place vote. Randolph-Macon topped the poll with 119 points and nine first-place nods followed closely by Shenandoah in second with 110 points and two first-place votes.
Preseason No. 5 Randolph-Macon will make the trip to Salem for a doubleheader on April 13 while No. 25 Shenandoah makes the trip on March 23.
RC received votes in the D3Baseball.com 2019 Preseason Poll and was ranked 30th in the Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll released earlier this year.
Roanoke returns 2018 Rookie of the Year Will Salva and First Team All-ODAC selection Jack Howard.
The Maroons finished last season 31-11 overall and 15-5 in the ODAC. Roanoke earned the #3 seed in the conference tournament and was ranked No. 15 nationally at the time. In the first round, Roanoke swept sixth-seeded Lynchburg in a best-of-three series to advance to the second round at the Hillcats Stadium in Lynchburg.
Virginia Wesleyan topped Roanoke in the opening game before the Maroons defeated Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan, in 13 innings, to advance to the Championships game. Roanoke fell to Shenandoah in the ODAC Championship to close out the season.
