EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville softball team will play 25 home games at Cooper Stadium this upcoming season, as head coach Mark Redburn announced the Purple Aces’ 2013 schedule.
UE’s 55-game slate features matchups with four 2012 NCAA Tournament teams, including Missouri. Evansville will match up against nine teams that won 30 or more games last season, two of which reached the 40-game win total.
The Aces will open their season on Friday, Feb. 15, as part of a three day event in the Troy Invitational featuring Troy, North Florida, and Virginia Tech.
On Friday, Feb. 22, the Aces will travel to Jackson, Miss., to take part in the Jackson State Tournament. UE will face off with JSU as well as Nebraska-Omaha.
Evansville will open up at home Saturday, March 2, as part of a tournament series that features Cleveland State, IUPUI, and Austin Peay.
UE will host its second home tournament that will include Bowling Green, Southeast Missouri State, and Murray State (March 9-10).
The Aces will continue the month of March with a doubleheader at Missouri (March 13) prior to opening up Missouri Valley Conference play in a three-game series with Creighton at Cooper Stadium (March 16-17).
The MVC schedule continues with a trip to Des Moines, Iowa with a three-game series against the Drake Bulldogs (March23-24), before returning back home to face Murray State in a doubleheader (March 27).
Stepping back into conference play, UE will make its way to Wichita State to play a three-game series (March 29-30) prior to traveling to Cape Girardeau, Mo., to take part in a doubleheader against the Redhawks of SEMO (Apr. 2) and a doubleheader against UT Martin in Martin, Tenn . (Apr. 3).
Evansville will open an 11-game stint at home against the defending MVC regular-season champions UNI in a three-game series (Apr. 6-7). The Aces will step out of conference play with a doubleheader against Middle Tennessee State (Apr. 10) before hosting Bradley in a three-game conference matchup (Apr. 13-14).
The Aces will close out the homestand with a doubleheader against conference opponent Southern Illinois (Apr. 17) and a single game matchup with SIU Edwardsville (Apr. 18).
Conference play heats up as UE takes a trip to Missouri State for a three-game series (Apr. 20-21) prior to a three-game stint in Terre Haute, Ind., with Indiana State (Apr. 27-28). Sandwiched in between matchups with the Bears and Sycamores, the Aces will face Southern Illinois in a single game contest (Apr. 23).
UE will makes its way back to Cooper Stadium to finish regular-season play against the defending MVC Tournament Champions Illinois State Redbirds in a three-game series (May 4-5).
The 2013 Missouri Valley Conference Softball Championship will be hosted by Creighton University (May 9-11) at the CU Sports Complex in Omaha, Neb.
