SAN ANTONIO – University of the Incarnate Word softball announced their schedule for spring 2020 on Wednesday. The lineup includes four early season tournaments beginning with two home invitationals hosted by the Cardinals to kickstart the season.
Head coach Joe DiPietro elaborated on putting the schedule together.
"We're excited about the schedule that we put together this year. By having the turf field ready this year, we're able to host two tournaments for the first time ever here at UIW. That's pretty exciting because we have teams from all over the country to play here," DiPietro said. "We're excited about them coming down to San Antonio and hosting them."
FEBRUARY
H-E-B Classic (February 7-9)
The Cardinals start the season off hosting the H-E-B Classic. The team plays Texas Southern for the first game of the season and the first of three meetings against the Tigers. From there, UIW plays North Dakota, Toledo and Creighton; all teams had 20 or more wins last season. Toledo won the MAC tournament to advance to Lexington Regional of the NCAA tournament last year.
Cardinal Invitational (February 14-16)
The second home invitational includes teams from the northeast such as Delaware, St. Bonaventure, Fairleigh Dickinson, Cleveland State and Grambling State.
Mardi Gras (February 21-23)
After starting the season at home for the first two weeks of the early season, the Cardinals travel to Louisiana to compete in the Mardi Gras tournament. UIW will face Alcorn State twice in this tournament as well as Mississippi Valley State, Jacksonville State and Louisiana Monroe. Jacksonville State had a successful 2019 season as they amassed 36 wins on the season.
The Spring Games (February 28-March 1)
In the final days of February, UIW will be at the beaches in Florida as they play in Madeira Beach for the Spring Games. This invitational includes teams from the northeast and south. They face St. Bonaventure for the second time and play two more New York teams in Sacred Heart and Buffalo. The southern teams they will face are Middle Tennessee and Florida Gulf Coast.
MARCH/APRIL
Non-Conference
The March portion of the schedule begins the non-tournament, non-conference games, as well as the beginning of conference play. The team plays UTSA a home-and-home series with the inner-city rival (home, Mar. 4 and away, Apr. 22). In between playing UTSA and Texas Southern, the Cardinals play North Texas at H-E-B field on March 9. UIW plays Texas Southern in a double-header in Houston (Mar. 25) to close out their season meetings. The team's last non-conference matchup is Prairie View, who they play three times (home DH, Apr. 8 and away, Apr. 29). Prairie View and North Texas both won more than 30 games last season.
Coach DiPietro believes the team has an opportunity to do some damage with the conference schedule this year.
"Our conference schedule is more favorable this season because we have a lot of the bigger teams coming here as opposed to us playing at their place. I think that plays into our hands and gives us an opportunity to defend our turf."
Conference
The Cardinals starts their conference slate with two away series beginning with Central Arkansas (March 6-7). The following weekend is followed up by a series at Stephen F. Austin (March 13-14). The team travels to Southern Louisiana (Apr. 3-4) and then against top-team Sam Houston State (April 10-11) for the last away conference series of the season. Sam Houston won the Southland Conference Tournament to play in the Austin Regional of the NCAA Tournament.
UIW faces two of the top teams in the conference last year at home as McNeese (Mar. 27-28) and Nicholls (Apr. 24-25) comes to San Antonio. The other home SLC games are against HBU (Mar. 20-21), Texas A&M CC (Apr. 17-18) and Abilene Christian (May 1-2).
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