W&J Baseball Announces Opponents For Florida Spring Break Trip
WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Washington & Jefferson College baseball team faces a tough seven-game slate when it makes its annual trip to the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational during Spring Break.
The Presidents play seven games in five days against five different opponents. All of their opponents posted winning records last season.
W&J begins the trip by taking on a pair of schools from New York. The Presidents will play a doubleheader against SUNY-Plattsburgh on March 17 and meet SUNY-Brockport the following day.
The highlight of the tournament comes on March 20 when W&J matches up with NCAA Division I Bradley (Ill.). The Braves, who won 27 games last season, are the Presidents’ first Division I opponent since they tied Duquesne 7-7 during the 2008 season. The Dukes are also the last Division I foe that W&J defeated, when it claimed a 5-4 victory in 1992.
The trip concludes with a Thursday matinee against Rowan and a doubleheader versus Gallaudet (Md.) on Friday, March 22. Rowan won 31 games and advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament last spring. Gallaudet is coached by former major leaguer Curtis Pride.
W&J has face only one of its Florida opponents previously. It downed SUNY-Plattsburgh 13-4 in Fort Myers, Fla., during the 2003 season.
The Presidents, who are ranked 20th in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s preseason poll, return 16 letter winners, including eight who garnered all-conference recognition last spring. W&J posted one of the top seasons in school history last year when it broke school records for wins (36) and conference wins (21) under Head Coach Jeff Mountain. Mountain owns a 270-157-1 record entering his 11th season in Washington and is the program’s all-time coaching wins leader.
