Temple will open its 2013 season on Friday, Feb. 15 in Cary, N.C. against Wright State at 12 p.m. in the first game of the USA Baseball Complex Classic.

The Owls are one of the eight teams competing in the three day tournament along with Villanova, LaSalle, Albany, Toledo, Delaware, Canisius, and Monmouth.

Following a 2012 season in which the Owls posted a record of 19-34 (7-17 in Atlantic 10), the Owls lone goal for this weekend is to leave with four wins in four games, red shirt senior pitcher Steve Visnic said.

“I think we have high expectations,” senior outfielder Allen Stiles said. “We played really well this fall and were going to come out and play to the best of our abilities.”

In the first game of the 2013 season, coach Wheeler said red shirt senior pitcher Dan Moller will take the mound against Wright State.

“[Moller] is one of our seniors and one of our leaders,” Wheeler said. “We are going to give him the ball early to get the season going.”

Following the 12 p.m. game against Wright State on Friday, the Owls will face Delaware at 3:30 p.m. Junior pitcher Preston Hill will get his first opportunity to start for Temple against Delaware, a team that can really hit the fastball, coach Wheeler said.

On Saturday, Feb. 16, the Owls will take on Monmouth at 3 p.m. Getting the nod to start is junior pitcher Matt Hockenberry, who led the Owls in wins in 2012 with five.

The final game of the tournament will be played on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Sophomore pitcher Patrick Peterson will get the start after leading the Owls in innings pitched in 2012 with 84.2 innings.

“A lot of it is on our pitching. We are supposed to have really good pitching this year,” Stiles said. “The pitching staff did really well in the fall. I think we will be able to come up with runs when we need them. As long as the pitchers do their job, we will do ours.”

After the final pitch in a loss to Rhode Island to end the 2012 season, the 2013 season began. Temple has been awaiting this weekend’s tournament all postseason and despite the inability to play on a field or partake in intersquad scrimmages, Wheeler said he hopes to have his team prepared starting on Friday.

“I just want us to go down there and play fundamentally sound baseball,” Wheeler said. “Run, hit, catch, throw. If we can do those things than we’ll be in a position to win each of the games this weekend.