SEMO baseball releases 2017 schedule

Members of the Southeast Missouri State baseball team celebrate with a dog pile after defeating Jacksonville State 14-8 to win the Ohio Valley Conference tournament Sunday, May 29, 2016 in Jackson, Tennessee. (Fred Lynch)

The Southeast Missouri State baseball team’s 2017 schedule was announced by coach Andy Sawyers on Monday.

The 52-game slate begins Feb. 17 in Nacogdoches, Texas. Southeast will play four games on opening weekend — two against UT Arlington and two against Stephen F. Austin.

In their first season under the direction of Sawyers, the defending Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament champion Redhawks will play 25 games at home, beginning with a three-game series versus Western Illinois (Feb. 24-26). It’ll be the first meeting between the two programs since 1996.

Other non-conference matchups for Southeast include a three-game series at Capaha Field against Big Ten opponent Purdue (March 3-5), a home game against Missouri State (March 15), single-game matchups at Central Arkansas (March 21) and Missouri (March 28) and a three-game series against host Western Michigan (May 5-7).

"I feel we have assembled a particularly good and challenging schedule for the upcoming season, especially one that our fans will enjoy watching us play out at home," Sawyers said in a press release. "The renovations being done at Capaha is a testament to getting big-name programs like Purdue and Missouri State to come to town.”

The Redhawks’ non-conference schedule also includes three home-and-home series — against Arkansas State (March 7, April 4), Southern Illinois (April 11, April 25) and Saint Louis (April 18, May 2).

Southeast will take part in its first OVC series March 10-12 at Morehead State before returning home for a three-game conference series against UT Martin on March 17-19.

The Redhawks’ conference slate also includes series at SIU Edwardsville (March 24-26), at home against Austin Peay (March 31-April 2), at Eastern Illinois (April 7-9), at home against Jacksonville State (April 13-15), at Murray State (April 21-23), at home against Tennessee Tech (April 28-30), at Belmont (May 12-14) and at home against Eastern Kentucky (May 18-20).

The OVC Tournament is scheduled for May 24-28 at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.

Southeast is coming off a 2016 campaign in which it set a single-season record in wins as a program, finishing with a 39-21 mark. The Redhawks won their third straight OVC regular-season title and claimed the conference’s tournament title to advance to an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2002.