Oakley Announces 2019 Softball Schedule
11/2/2018 2:04:00 PM | Softball
KENT, Ohio – Kent State softball head coach Eric Oakley announced the 2019 schedule for the 43rd season of Golden Flashes softball on Friday, Nov. 2nd. This year's slate will feature 15 home games at the Diamond at Dix, with the home opener against Ball State on Friday, March 29.
"We're excited to be playing some of the top teams in the country as we prepare for the conference season and beyond," said Kent State head coach Eric Oakley. "We have the talent to compete at a high level and are looking forward to gaining some experience against top 40 RPI opponents."
The Golden Flashes are coming off a season which saw them qualify for the Mid-American Conference Tournament for a league record 15th consecutive season. Holly Speers became the first Kent State player to be named a First Team All-American and lead the nation in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage. Kent State also had six players named All-MAC which led the conference.
Kent State will face stiff competition in the non-conference portion of the schedule with 17 games against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago.
The Golden Flashes will open the season at the FGCU Kickoff Classic (Feb. 8-10) for the second time in the last four seasons, facing Penn State twice, LIU Brooklyn and the host ASUN regular season champion Eagles twice.
Kent State will make a return trip to Waco where the Flashes knocked off Oregon State in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, to compete in the Baylor Invitational (Feb. 22-24). Two NCAA Tournament teams from last year in Louisiana and host Baylor are on the schedule along with North Texas out of C-USA. The Baylor Invitational features a tournament format and Kent State will know its last two opponents after the third game in the Lonestar State.
In the midweek, the Flashes travel to Baton Rouge to battle perennial powerhouse LSU, who is coming off an NCAA Super Regional on Feb. 26. The following day, KSU will make the short trip to Southeastern Louisiana, who is coming off its best season in school history, for a single game.
Later that week, Kent State takes on a challenging field in the Arizona Wildcat Invitational (Mar.1-3) with games with Big 10 Tournament champion Minnesota, Colonial Athletic Association regular season champion James Madison, Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament champion Drake and two games against NCAA Super Regional qualifier Arizona.
From Mar. 16-17, Kent State takes on Big 10 regular season champion Michigan for a three-game series and then travels to Youngstown State for a doubleheader (Mar. 20).
Kent State plays its first MAC series of the season on the road at Toledo (Mar. 22-23) before traveling to the East Coast during the midweek for doubleheaders against Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season and tournament champion Monmouth (Mar. 26) and Lehigh (Mar. 27) from the Patriot League.
The Golden Flashes open the home schedule with a three-game series against Ball State (Mar.2 9-30) before a home Tuesday twin bill against travel partner Ohio (Apr. 2). Later that week, the Flashes make their first trip to Western Michigan (Apr.5-6) for the first time since 2012 and travel to Athens to close out the set with Ohio (Apr. 10).
Miami visits the Diamond at Dix for a weekend series (Apr. 12-13) before taking on Pitt in the Steel City (Apr. 16) and hosting Robert Morris (Apr. 17) in a doubleheader.
KSU then travels to Akron for a doubleheader (Apr. 20) before hosting Northeast Conference regular season and tournament champion, Saint Francis (Pa.) for a doubleheader (Apr. 24)
The regular season rounds out with weekend series on the road at Buffalo (Apr. 26-27) and at home against Bowling Green (May 4).
The MAC Tournament (May 8-11) will once again be played at Firestone Stadium in Akron with the league's top eight teams qualifying for the tournament.
