EDINBURG – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Department of Intercollegiate Athletics announced on Thursday that the Vaquero baseball team will open up the 2021 season with a three-game home series against future WAC opponent Lamar starting on Feb. 19 at 1 p.m. at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.

UTRGV also plays Lamar on Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. and Feb. 21 at 12 p.m.

UTRGV plays its next five games against Power 5 competition, visiting Baylor for a mid-week game and Washington for a four-game series before returning home to host Northern Illinois March 5-7 with games at 1 p.m., 2 and 12, respectively.

Baylor and Washington both received votes in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s (CBN) preseason poll. In total, UTRGV is scheduled to play 25 games against teams ranked or receiving votes in the CBN, D1Baseball.com and/or Baseball America preseason polls, including a home game against No. 30 Texas State on April 6 at 6 p.m., and road games at  No. 9 Texas (March 16), No. 10 TCU (May 11), No. 21 Dallas Baptist (March 25-28), Grand Canyon (March 12-14), New Mexico State (April 30-May 1) and Sacramento State (May 20-22)

“I think the balance in our schedule is outstanding,” UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock said. “We face some outstanding teams on the road and that’s exciting. We’re playing a very tough schedule. It’s going to be a great test.”

After the Northern Illinois series, UTRGV plays its next 13 games on the road, starting with the WAC opening four-game series at Grand Canyon.

All WAC series will consist of four games this year with a doubleheader on Saturday. The first game of each doubleheader will be scheduled to last seven innings while the second game will be scheduled for the full nine innings. All WAC series will have consistent start times with opening night at 6 p.m. local time, the day two doubleheader starting at 1, and get away day starting at 12, unless otherwise indicated.

The trip continues on March 16 at Texas before another WAC series at Dixie State March 19-21. UTRGV closes out the road stretch with four games at Dallas Baptist March 25-28.

UTRGV returns home on March 30 at 6 p.m. to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union. This is the start of a 10-game home stand stretch of 14 out of 15 games at home, with the lone road game being a trip to Corpus Christi as part of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, on April 13.

UTRGV will play three-straight home WAC series to start April, beginning with California Baptist April 1-3, continuing with Utah Valley April 9-11, and concluding with Seattle U April 23-25.

UTRGV will face New Mexico State April 30-May 2 and then play its final two home WAC series May 7-9 against Tarleton and May 14-16 against Northern Colorado. UTRGV will visit TCU on May 11 and close out the regular season May 20-22 at Sacramento State.

The top six teams in the WAC advance to the WAC Tournament, which runs May 26-30 at Hohokam Stadium, the spring training home of the Oakland Athletics, in Mesa, Ariz. The WAC Tournament Champion earns an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournamen