The Rock will jump from the proverbial frying pan into the fire right off the bat this spring and never more so than during its annual spring-break trip.
The Green and White open their 2010 campaign with four-game series against Tiffin (in Chillicothe, Ohio) and at 2009 NCAA Division II regional qualifier West Virginia State.
The Rock then heads for Auburndale and Lakeland, Fla., where they will play eight games in the span of six days against arguably the most challenging group of spring-break foes in Rock baseball history.
This year’s spring-break schedule opens with doubleheaders against 2009 NCAA Division II regional qualifiers Rockhurst and Ashland on back-to-back days.
Immediately after that four-game set is a string of four nine-inning single games that will include duels with Minnesota State Mankato and Southwest Minnesota State, both of which competed in NCAA regional competition last spring, and Atlantic Region rival Charleston (W. Va.).
After taking a day off to travel, The Rock will meet PSAC-West rival and 2009 PSAC runner-up California in a four-game series in Savannah, Ga.
Three days later, The Rock opens its home schedule with a twinbill against Washington Adventist as the season begins in earnest.
New spring-break home
This spring will mark only the third time in 13 seasons The Rock did not play its spring-break games in Fort Myers, Fla.
The Rock made Fort Pierce its temporary home the past two springs. Prior to that, the only season since 1997 the Green and White did not play in Fort Myers was 2003, when they played at the IMG Baseball Academy and Lakewood Ranch High School in Bradenton.
Prior to 1997, SRU went to Boca Raton and the east coast of Florida for six successive seasons. While in Boca Raton, the team stayed at Wright-by-the-Sea, a private tropical paradise resort facility located in Delray Beach owned and operated at the time by Slippery Rock alumnus and Athletic Hall of Famer Dr. Russell Wright.
Prior to calling the Delray Beach/Boca Raton area its spring home, The Rock baseball team spent its spring break in central Florida at the Cocoa Exposition Center.
This spring will mark the second straight year The Rock will not play a Florida team as part of its week-long stay in the Sunshine State.
SRU’s 2008 game at the University of Tampa, which at the time was the two-time defending NCAA Division II national champion, marked the third time The Rock met a Sunshine State team on its home field.
SRU also played the Spartans in Tampa during the 2003 spring-break tour. Both The Rock and Spartans advanced to the NCAA Division II College World Series in Montgomery, Ala., in 2003 but did not meet head-on during that competition. Tampa earned national runner-up honors that season.
Three seasons later, in 2006, the Green and White were guests of Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers. FGCU was a Division II competitor at the time before moving to its current status as an NCAA Division I institution.
Early spring-break trips routinely included games against Division I rivals such as Davidson, Georgia Tech, Tennessee, Western Carolina
35-year tradition
The tradition of heading south for spring break began in 1975 under former Rock head coach Wally Rose. The early trips took The Rock to Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
The inaugural spring-break trip in 1975 consisted of 10 “exhibition” games that did not count in win-loss totals.
Rose-coached Rock squads achieved minimal success on its southern trips that featured several Division I squads.
Jeff Messer-coached SRU squads have compiled a .616 winning percentage in its spring-break games.
The Rock enjoyed one of its finest spring-break trips in history last spring when it recorded eight wins in 11 spring-break games, including a pair of victories over eventual PSAC and Atlantic Region champion West Chester.
Four years earlier, The Rock recorded a 9-1 record during its stay in Fort Myers. That mark was the best recorded by an SRU hardball team during its spring trip since the 1999 team had a 10-1-1 mark in Fort Myers. One season later, The Rock compiled an 11-2 record in Fort Myers. That matched the best-ever spring win total recorded in 1989, when SRU was 11-0 in Cocoa, Fla.
The following is a year-by-year won-lost recap of Rock spring-break trips:
2010 Auburndale/Lakeland, Fla. & Savannah, Ga. 4-8
2009 Fort Pierce, Fla. 8-3
2008 Fort Pierce & Tampa, Fla. 6-5
2007 Fort Myers, Fla. 6-3
2006 Fort Myers, Fla. 7-5
2005 Fort Myers, Fla. 9-1
2004 Fort Myers, Fla. 9-5
2003 Bradenton, Fla. 8-4
2002 Fort Myers, Fla. 6-5
2001 Fort Myers, Fla. 4-8
2000 Fort Myers, Fla. 11-2
1999 Fort Myers. Fla. 10-1-1
1998 Fort Myers, Fla. 8-3-1
1997 Boca Raton, Fla. 5-3
1996 Boca Raton, Fla. 3-6
1995 Boca Raton, Fla. 6-3
1994 Boca Raton, Fla. 4-6
1993 Boca Raton, Fla. 10-2
1992 Boca Raton, Fla. 3-5
1991 No spring trip
1990 Cocoa, Fla. 5-3-1
1989 Cocoa, Fla. 11-0
1988 Cocoa, Fla. 7-3
1987 Georgia and Alabama. 1-10
1986 Virginia/North Carolina 2-4
1985 Virginia/North Carolina 9-5
1984 Virginia/North Carolina 3-7-1
1983 Virginia/North Carolina 3-4
1982 Virginia/North Carolina 1-3-1
1981 Tennessee / North Carolina 4-6
1980 Virginia/North Carolina 1-8
1979 No spring trip
1978 Tennessee/North Carolina 1-7
1977 N.C./Georgia/Florida 2-10
1976 Tennessee/North Carolina 3-6
1975 Tennessee/North Carolina NA
Spring break records:
1976-1985 (Wally Rose) 27-56-2
1986-2010 (Jeff Messer) 153-100-3
Spring-break record 180-156-5
