Ah, who needs Major League Baseball anyway?
Apparently not the folks over at Globe Life Field, who on Friday announced a very full February schedule of college baseball events. While tickets went on sale for the second State Farm Baseball Showdown Friday, a three-day tournament of some of the highest profile programs in the country, the Rangers’ REV Entertainment division also announced a schedule of six additional games featuring local teams. The Rangers, meanwhile, should be at spring training in Arizona at that time, but MLB is currently in a lockout.
The nine games of the State Farm showdown from Feb. 18-20 will feature return invitee Texas Tech, the preseason No. 4 team in the country, according to Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, along with programs from the Big 12 (Oklahoma, Kansas State), SEC (Auburn), Pac 12 (Arizona) and Big 10 (Michigan). Last year’s tournament drew more than 48,000 fans.
Following that, Oklahoma State will meet Sam Houston State on Feb. 22, Texas State will face Wichita State on Feb. 23 and TCU will host Nebraska for a three-game series Feb. 25-27. UT-Arlington will face Dallas Baptist on March 22.
Tickets for all games went on sale Friday.
Texas Tech, which features All-American Jace Jung, the younger brother of Rangers’ prospect Josh Jung, is the clear headliner of the showdown. Tech joined eventual national champion Mississippi State, Mississippi, Arkansas, Texas and TCU in last year’s tournament. All six teams in last year’s tournament ended up playing in the NCAA tournament. In addition to Mississippi State, Texas also made the College World Series.
Arizona, which is under new coach Chip Hale, reached the College World Series last year and is No. 22 in the preseason Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. In addition to Tech and Arizona, four teams that will play in Arlington in February-March are in the preseason poll’s top 40: Oklahoma State (seventh), TCU (13th), Nebraska (31st) and DBU (32nd).
“We are looking forward to the opportunity to return to Globe Life Field and participate in such a great venue to open our 2022 season,” Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “It was really cool to see everybody in the same venue last year. Everybody who was here played at a really high level coming right out of the gate.”
Tickets for all college games are now on sale at texasrangers.com/collegebaseball.
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