July 26, 2008

Knoxville -- Tennessee head baseball coach Todd Raleigh announced Saturday that the Volunteers will open the 2009 campaign with a three-game home series against Oregon State. The teams also will meet in Oregon for a three-game set in 2010.

Oregon State won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007, two of the last three Pac-10 Conference titles and appeared in the NCAA College World Series three straight times from 2005-07.

“Any time you get to play a team that has won the national championship two out of the last three years, that’s a great opportunity for your program,” Raleigh said. “With 2009 being the 100th season of UT baseball, we wanted to make this a special opening series for our alumni and fans. We are really making an effort to upgrade our non-conference schedule.”

Tennessee fans will get their first official glimpse of the new-look Robert M. Lindsay Field at Lindsey Nelson Stadium when the Vols open against the Beavers Feb. 20-22, 2009. The stadium is currently in the midst of a multi-million dollar renovation project.

A state-of-the-art coaching complex and player development facility is nearing completion down the right-field line. A new seating addition, restroom facility and party pavilion down the right-field line also will be ready for the OSU series next February.

And when the Vols and Beavers take the field to open the season, they will do so on a brand new natural-grass playing surface that is currently being installed to replace the field that has been in use since 1993.

Raleigh and Oregon State head coach Pat Casey also announced that the Vols will be traveling to Oregon in 2010 for a three-game series against the Beavers. Dates and a site for that series, called the Papé Grand Slam, have yet to be announced.

OSU hosted Georgia in the 2008 Papé Grand Slam in Portland, with the three-game attendance total topping out at 29,332.

Tennessee has not faced a Pac-10 opponent since a 4-2 loss to Arizona State at the 2005 College World Series. The last time UT hosted a Pac-10 team in the regular season was May of 2001, when the Vols split a pair of games against the Sun Devils in Knoxville.

(utsports.com)