Posted: Jul 02, 2015
The baseball team will enter its 15th season where it has collected 175 overall wins and 86 conference victories. The program has had recent success under the helm of Matt McGuire who has achieved a 51-54 record in his three years here at Roanoke. The Maroons have achieved the three best win totals in the last three seasons in the program's history under McGuire's guidance and also won their first game in the ODAC Tournament for the first time as well. The Roanoke Baseball team has also had 23 All-ODAC selections since the inception of the program, 10 of which have been coached by McGuire.
2015 Season
2015 was another outstanding season for the Roanoke College baseball program. The Maroons closed the season with a 17-15 record, the first winning season in program history. The 17 wins marks the second highest win total in the program's existence. The Maroons reached the ODAC Tournament for the third time ever, and the second time in two years. The 11 ODAC wins this season are also the most ever by a Maroon program. Also, Roanoke had two players earn ODAC Player of the Week honors as Will Black and John Ruhlman earned the weekly nod.
Roanoke placed five players on the All-ODAC squads in the 2015 season as well, the most ever in a season, dating back to the start of the program in 2002. In 2014, the Maroons placed three players on the All-ODAC list, which was the previous record for most All-ODAC selections by a Roanoke College baseball team. Will Black is just the second First Team All-ODAC selection in program history, with Brian Kluge earning the honor during the 2012 season. Also receiving honors were Cal Hodgert and Will Decker who were placed on the All-ODAC Second Team along with Brian Kluge and Chad Hill who collected third team honors.
2016 Schedule
From Head Coach Matt McGuire:
"Again, I think we play one of the more challenging schedules in the south region. We open up with Frostburg State who spent time ranked #1 in the country last year and went to the World Series," said McGuire. "We have the always challenging ODAC schedule where three different teams were ranked nationally last year and two of those made the top-ten at one point. We also have the usual non-conference teams we play on an annual basis in Ferrum, Greensboro, Averett, William Peace and SVU and this year we have added three teams that Roanoke has never played in Penn State-Behrend, Centre, and North Carolina Wesleyan. Again, this will be a very challenging schedule and we look forward to the tough competition to prepare us for the ODAC tournament."
Just as Coach Matt McGuire said, the baseball team will start its 2016 season on February 13th with one of the best teams they will play all year in Frostburg State. Last year the Maroons had very competitive games with the Bobcats, but fell by scores of 4-6 and 0-5. The 2015 Frostburg State team made it all the way to the NCAA DIII College World Series and won the NCAA Mideast Regional Championship while achieving an impressive overall record of 43-9. The Bobcats finished the season with a No. 2 national ranking by both D3baseball.com and the ABCA while also leading the nation in walks (237), fielding percentage (0.975) and home runs (46). The Maroons will be tested early in the season in a three-game series with an FSU team that has recently become a powerhouse in DIII baseball.
After the series with Frostburg State, the Maroons will then conclude the month of February with a string of games against USA South opponents. The weekend of February 20th will include two games at William Peace and then a single-game matchup against NC Wesleyan on Sunday. Then, the Maroons will host Ferrum (2/24) for one game and Greensboro (2/27-28) for a three-game series on the last weekend in February.
Hopefully the month of February will prove to have more favorable weather for the Maroons than last year where the baseball team had eight games cancelled and many that were postponed.
The month of March will include a mix of conference and non-conference games. The Maroons will start the month and their conference schedule by hosting Eastern Mennonite in a doubleheader on March 5th. Then Roanoke will face an unfamiliar opponent in PS-Harrisburg who plays in the Capital Athletic Conference. Roanoke has faced them twice in the history of the programs where they have won one and lost one of those games against the Nittany Lions. The Maroons will then face another CAC opponent in Southern Virginia (3/10) where they hold a 9-3 all-time series record against the Knights.
The Maroons will then face the defending ODAC Regular Season and Tournament Champion in Shenandoah University on March 12th. The Hornets were able to win its first NCAA Regional game against Adrian last spring, but were knocked out by previously mentioned Frostburg State in the 2015 season.
Roanoke will then compete in a single contest against one of their biggest ODAC baseball rivals in Lynchburg College (3/16). The Hornets have been an ODAC Tournament bubble team throughout recent years, and their games with Roanoke are always competitive.
The Maroons will mix in a non-conference game with Averett University the next day, and then will play a doubleheader against Hampden-Sydney (3/19). The baseball team has split with the Tigers the past two seasons, and will look to collect the sweep against them this year. They will then play Guilford (3/22) in the middle of the week after its series with HSC, and the Maroons have had success against the Quakers in recent years where they achieved a 6-2 record against them since 2012.
Roanoke will play its next four games against two teams that they have not played before in the program's history. The first team will be against Centre College (3/23) who plays in the Southern Athletic Association. RC Baseball will then play in a difficult three-game series against a Penn State Behrend (3/26-27) team that went 28-12-1 last year while winning the ECAC Southwestern Championship. The Lions also collected six All-Conference selections and one ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Team selection as well. The Maroons will finish this stretch of non-conference games with a single game against Ferrum.
This will nearly complete the non-conference schedule for the baseball team, but its next stretch of games will consist of a single game against Emory & Henry (3/30), a doubleheader against Washington & Lee (4/2), and then a single game against Lynchburg (4/5). These will all be big games for the Maroons as they swept each of these teams last year and will look to do so again in the 2016 season.
On April 9th Roanoke will have another tough conference contest at home against Virginia Wesleyan that went 14-6 in conference play last year and were the runner-ups at the ODAC Championship. The Marlins also return Sean Greiser, who was the ODAC Pitcher of the Year, and they will also return four All-ODAC selections also. The Maroons will honor three seniors before this doubleheader for senior day in Clark Crutchfield, Boonewell Hagy, and Harrison Richards.
The Maroons will complete the non-conference portion of their schedule by playing Averett a final time on April 12th. Then the Maroons will complete the remaining six conference games on the road starting with their second game against Guilford on April 13th.
They will then play a doubleheader against Randolph-Macon (4/16) who was ranked in the top-25 most of last year. The Maroons completed a sweep against the Yellow Jackets when they were ranked 10th in the nation, which was arguably the best weekend for Roanoke College Baseball in the history of the program.
Roanoke will finish its series with Emory & Henry by playing one game on April 19th, and then head to Bridgewater College. The Maroons have split with Bridgewater every year since 2011, and will look to record their first sweep against the always competitive team that was ranked in the top-25 for some parts of last year.
The ODAC Tournament will most likely take place on that last week and weekend in April, although no definite date has been set. The Maroons will look to make the ODAC Tournament for the fourth time in the program's history and become a contender to win their first ODAC Championship.
For a full look at the Roanoke College Baseball Team's schedule, click here.
