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A rugged non-conference schedule awaits the Southeastern Louisiana University baseball program during its upcoming 2022 season, with nearly one-third of the overall competition and more than half of its road slate against teams that advanced to the NCAA postseason this past year.

SLU will host 28 home games at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field, comprising more than half of its regular-season schedule. The Southland Conference’s annual attendance leaders will welcome postseason participants Ole Miss, Louisiana Tech, South Alabama (Apr. 19) and Southern Miss (Apr. 26) to Hammond.

The Lions will head out on the road for a midweek showdown at College World Series-participant LSU (May 3) and a weekend series at Arkansas (March 4-6), a Super Regional club last season.

“Like we do every year building the schedule, we try to make sure it is competitive enough that if we win the games we’re supposed we can rely on the committee to put us in as an at-large team,” head coach Matt Riser said. “Our goal is to win championships every year, first the regular season and then move on to the tournament. If we put up the body of work during the 14 weeks of the regular season, we want to make sure we have the opportunity to compete for a national championship.”

Eight of the season’s first nine games are at home, beginning with Opening Weekend-opponent SIUE (Feb. 18-20). Following a trip to UL Lafayette (Feb. 22), Southeastern returns home for a weekend series against UAB (Feb. 25-27). A pair of midweek games against Tulane (March 1) and Louisiana Tech (March 2) wrap up the stretch leading into the series against the Razorbacks.

The road trip concludes with a midweek game at Louisiana Tech on March 9, returning to Hammond for a weekend series against Tennessee Tech (March 11-13) and the game against Ole Miss (March 15).

Final prep for conference action will happen on a four-game road trip that features a weekend series at Regional-participant Samford (March 18-20) and a midweek contest at Tulane (March 22).

The 2022 Southland slate features a new format during both the regular season and the conference tournament. Each Southland member will face a designated rival in a pair of home-and-home series, opening and closing the conference docket against the same opponent.

SLU will open up at home against Nicholls (March 25-27) and wrap up the regular season on the road against the Colonels (May 12-14). In between the are home series against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Apr. 8-10), New Orleans (Apr. 14-16) and HBU (May 7-9) as well as road trips to UIW (Apr. 1-3), McNeese (Apr. 22-24) and Northwestern State (Apr. 29-May 1).

Included in that stretch also are non-conference contests at South Alabama (Apr. 5) and Southern Miss (Apr. 12) along with home games against UL Lafayette (March 29) and Troy (Apr. 6).

A new and improved version of the Southland tournament means the regular season will wrap up a week earlier than in the past and all eight teams qualifying. The No. 1 and No. 2-seeded teams will host bracket play at their home ballparks the weekend of May 19-22.

Bracket winners advance to a best 2-of-3 championship series, May 26-28, hosted by the highest remaining seed in the tournament.

“Our coaches in the league did a fantastic job being proactive and creative,” Riser said. “We’ve got a two-week conference tournament that I think will give us a true champion. It’s a great design and gives two schools the ability to host in the first round.”

DIAMOND CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the baseball program are encouraged to join the Diamond Club. Lion baseball alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.

All membership fees and donations to both the Diamond Club and S Club (baseball) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern baseball program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Lions Baseball, follow @LionUpBaseball or @MattRiser17 on Twitter, @LionUpBaseball on Instagram and Facebook, and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.