2010 season outlook overview The Eagles finished with a 36-18 record last season, including finishing 23-7 in conference play. Head coach Dave Tollett repeated as A-Sun Coach of the Year, while four Eagles were named to the All-Atlantic Sun First-Team. The Eagles enter their third year as a member of Division I, and have already claimed two A-Sun regular season titles. This season, the No. 25 Eagles will be eligible for Division I postseason play for the first time in the program’s history. The Eagles look to defend their back-toback A-Sun regular season titles as they welcome 11 newcomers to a squad that returns seven position starters and four starting pitchers. The Schedule Outside of the ten A-Sun conference foes, the Eagles face some difficult nonconference opponents. The Eagles’ 56 game slate features six games against ACC competition, four games against Sun Belt teams, three games against the Missouri Valley Conference and the Atlantic 10, two games against the Big 12, along with single games against the SEC, Big East, and Big 10 competition. Head coach Dave Tollett talked about the Eagles’ schedule: “We wanted to play as tough a non-conference schedule as we could, knowing that this will be our first opportunity for postseason play. With games against Wichita State, Florida, Michigan, Clemson, Oklahoma State, and Miami, we think we’ve got one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. By playing quality teams throughout the season, we expect to be prepared not only for the A-Sun regular season, but also the conference tournament, and hopefully the NCAA tournament as well.” The Eagles will open the 2010 season at home on Feb. 19-21 with a three-game series against Temple at Swanson Stadium before traveling south to face No. 12 Miami in the first of three meetings on Feb. 24. The Hurricanes earned a berth in the 2009 NCAA Regionals, posting a 38-22 record last season.On Mar. 3, FGCU hosts Big Ten power, Michigan, in the first meeting between the two schools. After that, the Eagles hit the road to face No.
27 Wichita State on Mar. 5-7 in one of the toughest venues in college baseball. The Eagles will play a three-game series against the Shockers, who were the 2009 Missouri Valley Conference champions and are perinnial Regional or better participants (1989 NCAA Division I Nat’l Champions). The Eagles will play a home-and-home series with both Florida International and Florida Atlantic. FGCU will play host to FIU on Mar. 16 at Swanson Stadium and then head to Miami, Fla. on April 6 to close out the series. The Eagles will take on the Owls of FAU in Swanson Stadium on April 20 and the Blue and Green will head to Boca Raton, Fla. on May 11 to complete the pair of games. The Eagles will hit the road to face No. 9 Florida on Mar. 24 in Gainesville, Fla. The Gators advanced to the NCAA Super Regional last season but fell to Southern Mississippi in two games. The Eagles have a 1-1 record against the Gators after each team earned road wins last season. On Mar. 30-31, FGCU will travel to Stillwater, Okla. for a two-game, midweek series against 2009 NCAA Regional participant Oklahoma State. On April 14 the Miami Hurricanes will make their first trip to Fort Myers for the Slammin’ at Hammond game. The game will be played at Hammond Stadium, home of the Fort Myers Miracle and Minnesota Twins spring training. The Eagles have dropped the previous two meetings, although the Blue and Green gave Miami a big scare in 2008, falling to the No. 1 ranked Hurricanes 4-2 in 11 innings. Beginning Apr. 27 FGCU will play five straight non-conference road games, beginning with a single game at No. 35 South Florida on Apr. 27. Following that the Eagles will travel to Clemson, SC for their first-ever meeting with the No. 16 Clemson Tigers. That four-game series starts on May 1 and wraps up May 4. The Eagles open A-Sun conference play on the road against USC Upstate on Mar. 12-13. The Eagles have an all-time winning record against nine of the ten A-Sun opponents they face; against Belmont,
Ping! Baseball 2010 Preseason Rankings 1. Texas 2. Florida State 3. Cal State Fullerton 4. Virginia 5. Rice 6. Florida 7. LSU 8. Arizona State 9. UC Irvine 10. Georgia Tech 11. Arkansas 12. Clemson 13. Louisville 14. San Diego 15. Oregon State
16. Coastal Carolina 17. Vanderbilt 18. Ole Miss 19. TCU 20. East Carolina 21. Miami 22. Kentucky 23. North Carolina 24. Ohio State 25. FGCU 26. South Carolina 27. Middle Tennessee State 28. Southern Miss 29. Wichita State 30. Minnesota
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FGCU is 3-3 all-time. FGCU resumes conference play with a home series against ETSU on May 7-8, followed by a road game at Florida Atlantic (May 11). The Eagles will travel to Jacksonville to do battle with last year’s A-Sun tournament No. 1 seed, the Jacksonville Dolphins, May 14-15. The Dolphins took two out of three games from FGCU last year, but the Eagles swept JU in 2008. After a road game at Florida International (May 18), FGCU returns home to close out the regular season against A-Sun foe North Florida May 20-21. The Eagles swept the Ospreys in Jacksonville last year. The 2010 A-Sun Championship is set for May 25-29 at Lipscomb’s Dugan Field at Marsh Stadium in Nashville, Tenn., for the Eagles’ first appearance. The 2010 NCAA Championship is set to begin on June 4 with regional play. Top Returnees Chris Sale earned Atlantic Sun Preseason Pitcher of the Year honors in a unanimous vote befitting the status of the Ping!Baseball and Louisville Slugger preseason AllAmerican. The College Baseball Blog listed
2010 FGCU BASEBALL BACK-TO-BACK REGULAR SEASON CHAMPIONS
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