The Falcons baseball team will take on the Lipscomb Bisons on Friday afternoon, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday afternoon and the Belmont Bruins on Sunday afternoon at the Mule Mix Classic tournament in Nashville.
“Between these three schools, they’re all going to be quality opponents,” Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said.
Despite being swept in their previous series against the Texas A&M Aggies, the team feels it was still a valuable series because most of the players had a chance to get on the field and into the game.
“I think it’s huge any time you get your guys in the game,” Falcons head coach Danny Schmitz said. “Especially early in the year, they all need to get their feet wet and these early games like this are a part of an evaluation process. College baseball unfortunately doesn’t have [anything] like Major League Baseball where they have a spring training season or an exhibition season, so basically when college baseball says it’s time to start, we start.”
The Falcons will begin the tournament against Libscomb. The team feels they will be a difficult opponent due to their solid defense and exceptional pitching.
“All three teams that we play down there are going to be very, very solid,” Schmitz said. “Libscomb’s 2-1 after playing last weekend, and they’re going to be a solid team. They’re very good year in and year out; their number one starter has already got 17 career wins off the mound, and he’ll be a good one. They’ll be a team that will swing the bat, and they’ll play really good defense, so they’ll be a very solid team. They’re a very solid program, so it’ll be a challenge Friday.”
The team will then travel to nearby Murfreesboro, Tennessee to face Middle Tennessee in the second game of the tournament.
“We actually went down to play at their facility about five years ago,” Schmitz said. “Probably none of our guys are really familiar with that facility, but it’s nice facility; they’re a well-coached team. (Head coach) Jim McGuire’s been around a long time, and they’re 1-2; they played a real tough Georgia Southern team and all three games were very close, I think two of them went to extra innings, so they’ll again be very, very good; they’ll be solid in all three phases and this is another challenge for us.”
The team will finish the tournament in Nashville against the Belmont Bruins, who are already familiar with other teams in the Mid-American Conference.
“Belmont’s a team I believe they’ve played a couple of the conference schools,” Schmitz said. “They played Kent State over the weekend and they played Miami of Ohio … they’ll be a very solid team; (head coach) Dave Jarvis does a great job with that program down there and it’ll be a fun tournament.”
