MARION -- The Southern Illinois Miners have announced their full, 96-game schedule for 2020, with the club kicking off their fourteenth season of play in the Frontier League this coming May.
With the Frontier League sporting a new look after absorbing five franchises from the former Can-Am League, the Miners will kick off their 2020 campaign by hosting one of the new clubs, the New Jersey Jackals, on Friday, May 15 at Rent One Park, marking the fourth time in the last five years that they will open their season at home.
After playing three games against the Jackals, Southern Illinois will take on another new foe when they head to New York for the first time in franchise history, playing a road set against the Rockland Boulders from May 19-21. They will then stop in Washington, Pennsylvania for a weekend series against the Wild Things from May 22-24 before returning home to take on another new opponent, Sussex County, from May 26-28, kicking off one of six homestands of six games or longer the team will host in 2020.
Another schedule highlight comes from June 16-21, when the Miners travel north of the border to Quebec to take on Les Aigles de Trois-Rivières and Les Capitales de Québec, marking their first series played in Canada since 2012. In addition, both teams will come to Rent One Park next season, with Québec making their lone appearance in Marion from June 12-14, and Trois-Rivières playing in Southern Illinois from June 30- July 2.
As in past seasons, the Miners will also host eight total weekend series in Marion, and Miners fans will have a big opportunity to cheer their team on to victory down the stretch, as 15 of the club's final 18 regular season games will take place at Rent One Park.
This coming season, the Frontier League will grow to 14 teams split into two divisions, with Les Aigles de Trois-Rivières, Les Capitales de Québec, the New Jersey Jackals, the Rockland Boulders, and Sussex County of the former Can-Am League joining the nine returning clubs from one season ago. The Miners will be part of the Midwestern Division with Evansville, Florence, Gateway, Joliet, Schaumburg, and Windy City in 2020.
Each team will play an unbalanced schedule, with the Miners facing Evansville, Florence, Gateway, Joliet, and Schaumburg four times each (twice home and twice away). They will also take on Windy City, Lake Erie, Trois-Rivières, and Québec twice (once home and once away), while playing single home series against New Jersey and Sussex County, and single road series at Rockland and Washington.
All home game times at Rent One Park will be officially announced at a later date.
