Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University baseball team will begin the Jeff Gregory era on Tuesday, Feb. 1 against Winston-Salem State University. The Bulldogs are the defending South Atlantic Conference regular season champions. The Wingate-WSSU contest is the first game in 38 years for the Rams, who are revitalizing their baseball program. The historic contest will also be the home opener for the Bulldogs; first pitch is slated for 3 p.m. at Ron Christopher Stadium and Plyler Athletic Field.

The Bulldogs will play their first 2011 doubleheader Saturday against Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs and Red Raiders will wrap up the weekend series with a single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

On Saturday, the Wingate University baseball team and the entire Bulldog family will honor Ron Christopher’s memory at approximately 12:45 p.m. (prior to the first pitch of the Shippensburg-Wingate doubleheader). Christopher passed away in June. In 24 seasons as Wingate’s head baseball coach, Christopher compiled a 536-343-3 overall record.

Wingate will go on the road for its next two contests, making its first visit to Lander University’s recently completed Jeff May Sports Complex on Feb. 8. The Bulldogs will play a contest at US Highway 74 rival St. Andrews Presbyterian College the next day. Other non-conference highlights include a weekend series against Augusta State Feb. 12-13 and a home-and-home series against local rival Belmont Abbey College on Feb. 22 in Wingate and March 15 in Gaston County.

The Bulldogs will defend their 2010 South Atlantic Conference regular season championship beginning on Feb.18 against Mars Hill College at 6 p.m. at Ron Christopher Stadium and Plyler Athletic Field. Other home league series include Lenoir-Rhyne University Mar. 11-12, Newberry College Mar. 19-20, Carson-Newman College April 1-2 and Brevard College April 15-16. Friday SAC games will be a single nine-inning contest with two games on Saturday (one nine-inning contest, one seven-inning).

The 2011 Food Lion SAC baseball tournament will be held at McNair Field in Forest City for the second consecutive year April 20-23. This year’s event will begin and end a day earlier due to Easter Sunday. McNair Field is the home of the Forest City Owls.

The Bulldogs will play four teams that qualified for the 2010 NCAA Division II tournament. Wingate will face 2008 College World Series champion and pre-season number seven Mount Olive College on Feb. 23. Erskine College, ranked number 28 in the pre-season polls, played in the 2010 Southeast Regional tournament along with Mount Olive and Food Lion SAC tournament champion Catawba College. The Catawba Indians are the number 23 pre-season team. Wingate will face 2010 Atlantic Regional at-large participant West Virginia State University at home March 22-23.

WINGATE UNIVERSITY

Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a private comprehensive university with more than 2,300 students on two campuses in Wingate and Matthews, North Carolina. The university offers 32 undergraduate majors, 36 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, graduate degrees in business, accounting, physician assistant studies and sports administration and doctorates in pharmacy and education.

Wingate students gain the tools and support they need to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. The campus community offers in-class learning, out-of-class experiences, strong mentors, a competitive yet caring environment and rewarding community service opportunities for a complete educational experience.

Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past four years.

Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 38 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 47 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.

(Wingate University junior Steven Grandy contributed this article. A Sport Management major from Raleigh, N.C., Grandy earned first place in the District III Athlete Profile portion of the 2010 CoSIDA Fred Stabley, Sr. Writing Contest.)