Weather permitting, nine Southern Conference baseball teams will take the field on Friday, Feb. 22 for the opening games of the season. Appalachian State’s game at North Carolina State has already been postponed for a day.

At 3:00 p.m., LaSalle plays at Elon and Furman is at Tennessee in the first games of the season. Other games scheduled include Kent State at UNC Greensboro, Marshall at Western Carolina, St. Peter’s at Wofford (DH), Radford at Davidson, George Mason at College of Charleston, Delaware at The Citadel and Boston College at Georgia Southern.

Western Carolina and College of Charleston each earned a share of the regular-season crown in 2007 and surprising Wofford captured the Southern Conference Championship title. Both Western Carolina and Wofford advanced to the NCAA Regionals.

The Catamounts and Cougars are favored to win the title again this year in a tight race, according to a vote of both the conference’s coaches and the Southern Conference Sports Media Association.

Elon, The Citadel, Georgia Southern, Appalachian State and UNC Greensboro are also expected to challenge for league supremacy with Wofford, Furman and Davidson.

The Southern Conference welcomes two new coaches to the ranks. Bobby Moranda replaced Todd Raleigh at Western Carolina after Raleigh accepted the head coaching position at Tennessee. At Wofford, Todd Interdonato replaced Steve Traylor, who retired after leading the Terriers to the SoCon Championship last season.