Flashes Unveil 2022 Season Schedule
12/10/2021 10:00:00 AM | Baseball
KENT, OHIO- Led by head coach Jeff Duncan, the Golden Flashes have released an excited and challenging 2022 slate for the Kent State Baseball program.
The Golden Flashes will play 26 games at the friendly confines of Schoonover Stadium including midweek games against Georgia Tech, Ohio State and Pitt. Season and single-game ticket packages will be available in early 2022 through the Kent State ticket office.
Kent State opens the season on Friday, February 18th in Conway, South Carolina where they will face the host Coastal Carolina Chanticleers twice (Fri/Sun) and West Virginia on Saturday, February 19th. The Golden Flashes are 17-8 all time against Coastal Carolina, who is coming off a 27-24 campaign in 2021. The Mountaineers own the all-time series with Kent State 4-1 but the Flashes did top WVU the one time they met at Coastal Carolina.
The following weekend (Feb 25-27) has the Flashes heading to Lubbock to take on Texas Tech, who is coming off a 39-17 season and advanced into the College World Series super regional last year. Kent State participated in the 2018 regional held in Lubbock, but never faced the top-seeded Red Raiders, this will be the first meetings between the programs.
The final weekend before conference play (March 4-6) sends the Flashes to Clarksville, Tennessee for the first ever meetings with the Austin Peay Governors. Austin Peay went 23-33 last season and competes in the Ohio Valley Conference.
MAC play opens up on Friday, March 11th with a four-game series with the defending MAC Champion Central Michigan Chippewas. The Chips went 42-18 last season and made the South Bend regional final. Central took three of four last season in Mount Pleasant and owns a 62-58 series lead all-time.
Kent State embarks on a nine-game road trip to end March with trips to Ohio (March 18-20), Pitt (March 23rd) and Northern Illinois (March 25-27). The Bobcats and Golden Flashes are no strangers to each other, having already met 191 times. Kent State took two of three from the Bobcats at Bob Wren Stadium back in 2019. The Flashes and Panthers will meet twice in 2022 with Pitt making the return trip on April 12th. Kent State leads the all-time series 44-26 and swept Pitt in two games back in 2019. The Golden Flashes took two of three from the Huskies in DeKalb back in 2019, topping 10 runs in all three games. Kent State owns a 43-23-1 all-time record against NIU.
The Flashes open a nine-game home stand with another group of Huskies as UCONN makes its first trip to Schoonover Stadium April 1-3. Connecticut captured the Big East title last year and is coming off a 34-19 season. The following weekend (April 8-10), Bowling Green comes to town for a four-game series. The Flashes swept the Falcons last year at BG and will face the Falcons for the 200th time during the weekend. To date, Kent State has won 128 of the 196 meetings.
April 15-17 sends the Flashes to Toledo to matchup with the Rockets, who took three of four from Kent State at home last season. Kent State still holds a comfortable lead in the all-time series 104-69-1. April closes with a pair of local series. Miami comes to Schoonover on the 22-24 for a four-game set. Kent State took three from the RedHawks in Oxford last season and the Flashes own a 118-85-1 record over their longest-tenured rival. The Wagon Wheel series is up next for the Flashes as they will take on the Zips April 29-May 1. Kent State took 3 of 5 from the Zips last season but this will be their first trip to the Rubber City since a 2013 sweep.
The Ohio State Buckeyes come to Schoonover on May 4th for a 6pm midweek clash. It's the first trip to Kent for Ohio State since 2016, a 5-3 Kent State win. Ohio State went 22-20 last season in a conference-only schedule. This will be the 51st meeting between the state schools with Ohio State owning a 35-15 lead in the series. Two days later, the Ball State Cardinals come to town for a four-game set. The two teams split a four-game set in Muncie last season which is on par with the all-time series for the programs. Kent State narrowly leads the all-time series 69-58.
The final road trip of the regular season is set for May 13-16 at Western Michigan. The Flashes took three of four from the Broncos last season at home and swept the Broncos last time out in Kalamazoo back in 2018.
Kent State closes out the regular season with five-straight at home starting with the first ever trip to Kent for Georgia Tech on Tuesday, May 17th. The two teams have met 17 times previously, but not since 2012. The Yellow Jackets are coming of a 31-25 season and a spot in the Nashville regional where they took host Vanderbilt to 11 innings. Eastern Michigan comes to town for senior weekend May 19-21. The Flashes closed the 2021 regular season with three wins in Ypsilanti to close the campaign last year.
The 2022 MAC season will consist of 40 conference games with a Saturday double header. The top-four teams in conference play will advance to the MAC tournament with the top-seeded team hosting.
