Complete Release in PDF Format

Two home tournaments and 27 home games highlight the 2009 Baylor softball schedule released on Tuesday. The schedule features 21 games against 12 teams that qualified for the 2008 NCAA Softball Championship.

"This is a tough schedule that will test us and get us prepared for Big 12 play," head coach Glenn Moore said. "Our coaches and players are very excited about the quality of opponents on this schedule, and I think our fans will be pleased at the number of games at Getterman Stadium."

For the first time since 2001, Baylor will open its season on the road, taking on Florida in a three-game series on Feb. 6-8 in Gainesville, Fla. The Gators ended 2008 with a No. 3 national ranking and set an NCAA record with 70 wins.

The Lady Bears will return home for the Getterman Classic as Baylor plays host to Northwestern State, UTSA, Ole Miss and Stephen F. Austin at the eighth-annual classic on Feb 13-15.

Baylor will travel to Houston, an NCAA super regional qualifier from a year ago, for a doubleheader beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Feb 18. The Lady Bears will return home for a three-game weekend series against Sam Houston on Feb. 20-22 before hosting their second tournament, The QTI Invitational (Baylor, Rutgers, Louisiana Tech and ULM) on Feb. 27-March 1.

The Lady Bears then embark on a nine-day road trip through the southeast beginning with a game against Centenary on March 4. Next up is a tournament at Alabama featuring the Crimson Tide, Washington and Georgia that runs March 6-8. Games at Southern Miss (March 10), LSU (March 11) and a doubleheader at Northwestern State wrap up the road trip, followed by a pair of games back home against Prairie View A&M (March 17).

Baylor opens the Big 12 Conference season on Saturday, March 21, at 2:00 p.m. as the Lady Bears travel to Texas Tech for a two-game series.

In addition to Texas Tech, the Lady Bears will travel to Oklahoma (April 1), Texas (April 8), Iowa State (April 10-11), Texas A&M (April 15) and Kansas (April 25-26).

The Lady Bears will host Texas A&M (March 25), Missouri (March 28-29), Oklahoma State (April 4-5) and Nebraska (April 18-19) before wrapping up the home portion of the schedule with Texas (April 22).

Baylor will open post-season play at the Big 12 Championships which runs May 8-10, in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The Lady Bears return 13 players, including three-time NFCA All-American Brette Reagan, from last year's squad that finished 23-22 overall.