IRVINE, Calif. --- UC Irvine Baseball approved a full 56-game schedule for 2021 as part of its return to action this spring.

PDF Schedule | Website Schedule

In order to comply with new COVID-19 safety measures and protocols as well as the addition of two schools to bring the Big West to 11 baseball programs, the Anteater schedule will feature some weekly adjustments:

• Per state, local, and university guidelines, the season will begin without spectators in attendance. The issue of fan attendance will be revisited as the season progresses. Anteater Ballpark and the Athletics Complex, including the Mesa Parking Structure, are closed to the public.
• UCI will not play any midweek games throughout the entire season. To make up for the loss of midweeks, every conference weekend series will now be four games with doubleheaders scheduled for each Saturday. In all, it gives UC Irvine its largest conference season at 40 games.
• Home start times have been announce with 3:00 p.m. for Friday games and 1:00 p.m. for Saturday and Sunday contests. Saturday home doubleheaders will start at 12:00 p.m. with the second game kicking off 40 minutes after the conclusion of game 1. Start times for most road matchups are still TBD. As with everything in this season, dates, start times, and opponents are subject to change.
• Each and every home game this season will feature live video stream in addition to radio broadcast via KUCI 88.9 FM and kuci.org and live stats for fans to follow the action.
• ucirvinesports.com will be fans' main source for home and road games all season hosting links for live stats, radio broadcasts, and live video streams.
• The UCI Mobile App is another great source of info from ucirvinesports.com where fans can opt in to notifications straight to their phone for scores, news, game changes, and anything happening with UCI baseball
• Anteater social media accounts will also be sources of news, links, and in-game updates via Twitter (@UCIbsb), Facebook (UCIbsb), and Instagram (@UCIbsb).

The Anteaters, much like the rest of the collegiate baseball world, saw their 2020 season cut short due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Head Coach Ben Orloff had the program at 8-7 coming off their weekend series win over Sacramento State at season's end in just his second season at the helm.

"The exciting part is we're going to post a 56-game schedule. The quality of opponents is still really good, and in a pandemic it has taken a lot of work and rework," noted the third-year head coach. "That's important for me and our kids and the team. I'm really proud of the schedule that we have. We're looking forward to a lot of baseball. We're excited for the challenge, and I know the coaches and the players, we all love playing. I don't think we can have enough games or enough innings so let's play."

The Anteater non-conference slate features exciting opponent matchups from the Pac-12 and Mountain West starting with UCI's 2020 opening day opponent, Fresno State. The pair will open up in Anteater Ballpark which is hosting Anteater baseball for its 20th season.

Three Pac-12 powerhouses dot the premier non-conference slate for coach Orloff's squad with four games at home and six on the road. The Bruins are ranked in the top three in every major preseason poll, and will welcome the 'Eaters for Friday and Sunday meetings and travel to Cicerone Field for a Saturday afternoon matchup, February 27.

UC Irvine's high-profile road trip sends them to Stanford just ahead of Big West play. The Anteaters and Cardinal have played four games against each other in their programs' histories, and will now meet for a four-game series. This is the first series of any kind between these two schools, and first contest since 1981.

The Pac-12 run continues into conference season with a three-game set against three-time College World Series champion Oregon State. This will be the first meeting with the Beavers since the 2014 NCAA Regional in Corvallis, Ore. that the 'Eaters upended the then-No. 1 National Seed. The Beavers make their first trip to UCI with a mid-April series in the midst of the 40-game Big West ledger.

The Anteater conference schedule will alternate home and away sites for the 10 weeks starting in Davis to take on the Aggies, March 19-21. UCI opens the home portion of its conference ledger with a visit from Hawai'i for four games, March 26-28.

The home slate for UCI fills up with conference-newcomer UC San Diego (April 9-11), Long Beach State (April 30 – May 2), UC Riverside (May 14-16), and Cal State Fullerton (May 28-30) all visiting Anteater Ballpark for four-game sets. The 'Eaters will also travel to Riverside for a three-game non-conference series against the Highlanders in early March.

The Anteater road trips send them off to CSUN (April 2-4), Cal Poly (April 16-18), UC Santa Barbara (May 7-9), and the other conference-newcomer, Bakersfield (May 21-23), all for four-game series as well.