Due to potential rain in the Blacksburg, Va. area, the baseball team has altered their schedule for this weekend’s games against Virginia Tech and Holy Cross.

Originally scheduled to play two games against both teams, Temple (0-2) will now take on Virginia Tech at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 23. On Sunday, the Owls will play the final two games of the weekend in a doubleheader against Holy Cross starting at 11 a.m. with the second game scheduled for 6 p.m.

This will be the second weekend in a row for the Owls that the team has lost games due to weather. In the USA Baseball Complex Classic last weekend in Cary, N.C., the Owls were unable to play their final two games against Toledo and Monmouth because of snow.

John Murrow can be reached at john.murrow@temple.edu or Twitter @JohnMurrow12.

Following an opening weekend that saw Temple’s final two games cancelled due to weather conditions in Cary, N.C., the Owls will be back on the field on Friday, Feb. 22 against Virginia Tech.

On Friday at 3:00 p.m. and Saturday at 6:00 p.m. Temple (0-2) is set to take on Virginia Tech (4-0) despite potential rain forecasts in the Blacksburg, Va. area. Before their second game against Virginia Tech on Saturday, the Owls will face Holy Cross (0-0) at 12:00 p.m on Saturday. In their final game of the weekend, the Owls will once again play Holy Cross at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 24.

“Virginia Tech is an ACC club and they are going to be very talented,” coach Ryan Wheeler said. “They have had the chance to get outside and play some games and I expect them to be very tough. Holy Cross is coming out for the first time this weekend and just as we will, they will be working out their kinks.”

The Owls will be playing an offensively minded Virginia team that likes to show their muscle offensively, Wheeler said. In four games this season, the Hokies have outscored their opponents 34-12.

“Virginia Tech is going to swing,” assistant coach Brian Pugh said. “They are going to get in there and be aggressive. “As far as pitching goes, we have got to execute pitches and try to exploit there weaknesses. We have got some good information on them and we have got to do what we got to do. We have to get ahead in the count and make the hitters be on the defensive side.”

Having tied Temple’s all time lead in appearances on Friday, Feb. 15 in the 8-4 loss to Delaware, redshirt-senior pitcher Steve Visnic will look to set the Owls’ record for appearances in one of the team’s four games this weekend.

“I don’t think [Virginia Tech and Holy Cross] are anything that we cant handle as long as we play our game,” Visnic said. “We just need to stay focused on what we are doing rather than what they are doing and I think we will be alright.”

After last weekend’s tournament in which the Owls gave up 16 runs in two games, eight runs against Wright State and eight runs against Delaware, Temple will look to control their opponents offensive production this weekend, Pugh said.

“We have got a good challenge in front of us this weekend,” Pugh said. “I think we have a chance to do some good things too.”

The final two games of the USA Baseball Complex Classic in Cary, N.C., were cancelled due to rain and snow in the area early Saturday morning.

Temple was originally scheduled to play Monmouth at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, but the weather forecast in the area had the game rescheduled in attempt to beat the projected conditions. The Owls were then scheduled to play Toledo at 11 a.m. on Saturday, which was then cancelled due to the weather shortly after noon Saturday.

“The snow is really coming down [in Cary, N.C.] and rather than us waiting, they have cancelled the rest of the games this weekend,” coach Ryan Wheeler said.

Both games against Monmouth and Toledo were cancelled for Saturday and Sunday, sending Temple back to Philadelphia earlier than scheduled. After back-to-back games Friday, the first time that the team has been on a field since the fall, the team will take the week to practice for next weekend at Virginia Tech, Wheeler said.

After starting the season yesterday against Wright State with an 8-3 loss, the Owls later fell to Delaware 8-4.

Temple will leave the tournament and begin the season with a record of 0-2-0. The Owls next chance to improve their record will be on Friday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. as they head down to Blacksburg, Va., to face Virginia Tech.

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.