Palm Announces Spring Break Schedule

Tenth-year head baseball coach Matt Palm is pleased to announce the release of the nationally ranked Heidelberg University’s 2009 Spring Break schedule. The Berg will travel to Port Charlotte, Fla. and play 10 games at the Snowbird Baseball Classic. To close out its swing down south, Heidelberg will stop in Demorest, Ga. for two more contests at Piedmont University.
 
Heidelberg enters the year ranked eighth in the D3baseball.com preseason poll and 12th according to the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s preseason poll. A season ago Heidelberg combined to set 31 team and individual records, including a program record for wins at 41-10. Along the way the Berg won the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season and Tournament crowns and earned the program’s second trip to the NCAA Mideast Regional. Under Palm’s tutelage, Heidelberg has won three conference regular season titles and two tournament championships.
 
Starting things off is two contests versus John Jay College on March 1 and 2. John Jay is a member of the University of New York Athletic Conference, which it has won the regular season crown each of the last two years. The Bloodhounds have made an appearance in their conference championship game for three-straight seasons.
 
Heidelberg will take to the field against Eastern Mennonite University on March 3. Eastern Mennonite is located in Harrisonburg, Va. and is a member of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
 
Fellow Mideast region foe Bluffton University, a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference member,  is on Heidelberg’s slate for two contests. The Berg and Bluffton will square off on March 4 and again on March 6.
 
Splitting the Bluffton outings is a March 5 contest with Division II Winona State. Winona State received votes in the Division II preseason poll after earning a trip to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament in 2008.
 
Next on the docket are three-straight games against fellow Ohio schools and Mideast region foes Mount St. Joseph College and the College of Wooster. The Berg takes on three-time Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Champion Mount St. Joseph’s, March 7.
 
On March 8 Heidelberg will play a doubleheader with Wooster.  Overall Wooster has won 11 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships and has made five-consecutive appearances in the NCAA Regionals. A season ago, the Berg knocked out the Fighting Scots, 1-0, in the bottom of the ninth to earn a spot in the regional championship game. In the preseason rankings, Wooster is eighth according to Collegiate Baseball Newspapers and was voted 11th by D3baseball.com.
 
Closing out Heidelberg’s stay in Florida is a game against Benedictine University March 9. Benedictine is from Lisle, Ill. and is the reigning Northern Athletics Conference Regular Season Champion.
 
Heidelberg faces Piedmont March 12 and 13th. Piedmont is ranked 27th by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll and received votes in the D3baseball.com preseason poll.