Weekend Preview: Texas Christian, Louisiana State, Mississippi, Texas Tech, Texas A&M Converge For Classic

Teddy Cahill looks at college baseball’s biggest series heading into the weekend

Since its inception in 2001 as the Astros College Classic, the annual early-season tournament in Minute Maid Park in Houston has drawn impressive fields. This year’s field at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic has a chance to be one of its best ever.

TOP 25 SERIES

Oakland at (2) Florida State

Columbia at (3) Florida

(5) South Carolina at/vs. (15) Clemson

Eastern Michigan at (6) Louisville

(7) Cal State Fullerton at Houston

UC Davis at (8) Oregon State

Sacramento State at (11) Washington

Long Beach State at (13) North Carolina

Cal State Northridge at (14) Vanderbilt

Southern Mississippi at (16) Louisiana-Lafayette

Belmont at (17) Georgia Tech

Texas at (22) Stanford

(23) UC Santa Barbara at Kentucky

TOP 25 TOURNAMENTS

Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic, Houston

(1) Texas Christian, (4) Louisiana State, (20) Mississippi, (21) Texas Tech, (25) Texas A&M, Baylor

Keith LeClair Classic, Greenville, N.C.

(9) East Carolina, Appalachian State, St. John’s, Western Carolina

USA Baseball-Irish Classic,
Cary, N.C., and Raleigh, N.C.

(10) North Carolina State, Dayton, Maryland, Massachusetts-Lowell, Monmouth, Notre Dame, Rhode Island, William & Mary

Virginia Tournament, Charlottesville, Va.

(12) Virginia, La Salle, Niagara

Tidelands Health Classic, Conway, S.C.

(18) Coastal Carolina, Albany, San Francisco, Winthrop

Frisco (Texas) College Baseball Classic

(19) Arizona, (24) Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Nebraska

Five teams ranked in the Top 25—No. 1 Texas Christian, No. 4 Louisiana State, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 21 Texas Tech and No. 25 Texas A&M—will converge at Minute Maid Park this weekend.

Baylor, the sixth team in the field, enters at 9-0. The six teams are a combined 48-5 to start the season.

“If you’re a college baseball fan this is place to be this weekend,” Texas A&M coach Rob Childress said. “You’ve got six great teams off to a great start playing at a high level.”

TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle is excited to join all the fans in the stands this weekend when the Horned Frogs aren’t playing.
“I’m looking forward to all the other games,” Schlossnagle said. “I will not miss a pitch. I will be there watching the other games, scouting the games but more so trying to enjoy them as a fan.”

There will be plenty to take in. The tournament for the first time has a Southeastern Conference/Big 12 Conference challenge format with each team facing the three opponents from the opposite conference over the course of the weekend. As a result, this is the first time Houston is not in the tournament and the second time Rice is not a participant. (Adding to the plethora of good baseball in the city this weekend, Houston will host No. 7 Cal State Fullerton and Pepperdine travels to Rice.)

The SEC/Big 12 format delivers some intriguing matchups. Friday’s final game will be a top-five showdown between LSU and TCU. The following day, TCU will face Texas A&M in a super regionals rematch. The final day of the tournament begins with LSU taking on Texas Tech.

But no matter which teams are on the field, the games promise to be exciting. Coaches often talk about early-season tournaments as having a regional feel. This year’s Shriners College Classic will take that a step further.

“I can’t imagine any bracket in Omaha being any tougher than what this tournament is going to be,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s exactly like playing on one side of a bracket in the College World Series.”

With elite teams come elite players. Four Preseason All-Americans will appear in the tournament—TCU first baseman Luken Baker, LSU righthander Alex Lange, Texas A&M righthander Corbin Martin and TCU catcher Evan Skoug.

The field also includes Texas A&M righthander Brigham Hill, who earned All-America honors last season, TCU freshman lefthander Nick Lodolo, the highest-drafted player not to sign last year, Texas Tech righthander Davis Martin, a Freshman All-American last season, Baylor closer Troy Montemayor, who ranks seventh in program history in saves, LSU lefthander Jared Poche’, who opened the season with 15 hitless innings, and Ole Miss’ exciting newcomers, who made up the top-ranked recruiting class this fall.

Those players will be looking to make an impression on the many scouts in attendance, much as former LSU shortstop Alex Bregman did two years ago. He made a strong showing in the 2015 tournament and the Astros made him the second overall pick a few months later.

“I told our players that who knows maybe one of them will do the same,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “I told our players it may be one of you guys this year that shines in a big league ballpark in front of a bunch of executives. It’s a great opportunity. There’s going to be a lot of great players on the team throughout the six teams.”

The crowd outside the scouting section is likely to be sizeable as well. The six teams all have large fan bases with a strong alumni base in Houston, which should make for a good atmosphere inside Minute Maid Park.

With all the excitement surrounding the tournament, it would be easy to place outsized emphasis on three games in the first weekend of March. But to the coaches, the greatest benefit of the tournament will be to learn how their teams react to quality competition.

“At the end of the day Sunday, we’ll know the things we’re doing well and the areas we need to improve moving forward,” Childress said. “I’m most looking forward to 8:30 (p.m.) on the bus ride home knowing where we’re at going into SEC play in a couple weeks.”

For the teams that have winning weekends at the Shriners College Classic, it can be a confidence boost for the rest of the season. At last year’s tournament, TCU went 3-0 and Texas Tech went 2-1. Both finished the year in Omaha.

But Schlossnagle said the teams that having losing weekends in Houston can benefit from the experience as well.

“You’re always going to face a good club in a great environment, so if you have success down there you can lean on that the rest of the season and guys take confidence from it,” Schlossnagle said. “There’s no doubt that happened last year.

“If you don’t do well, then you know what you have to get better at and you can make that part of your story as well. There’s probably somebody in this thing that goes 0-3 or 1-2 that plays in the College World Series. You have to take it in stride, take it for what its worth on both ends of the spectrum.”