College baseball returns with a high-profile weekend of games February 17-19 during the 2023 College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The teams on the field are Arkansas No. 8, Oklahoma State No. 9, Vanderbilt No. 10, TCU No. 15, Texas and Missouri.
Globe Life Field is the home of MLB’s Texas Rangers and holds over 40,000 fans at capacity. The College Baseball Showdown has hosted as many as 17,000 college baseball fans in its short history. There are nine games scheduled and all will be broadcast on FloSports (subscription required).
Here’s the schedule for the event, now in its third season (every hour ET):
Friday February 17
Saturday February 18
Sunday February 19
Here’s a breakdown of some of the teams you can watch this weekend. It’s taken from this article, which includes some of the other best non-conference games from the start of the season.
Arkansas will host in several transfers as coach Dave Van Horn seeks to retool an Omaha team that has lost its starting midfielder and center back. The strength of this team is on the mound, even with the recent loss of flamethrower starter Jaxon Wiggins to Tommy John surgery. But the Razorbacks are still very talented to fight for SEC supremacy, led by comebacks Brady Slavens and Jared Wegner at the plate with Hagen Smith and Brady Tygart stoking the teams on the hump.
TOS is a team full of experience at this level. Two players to watch are junior third baseman Braden Taylor (a preseason first-team All-American pick) and junior center fielder Elijah Nuñez, who are perhaps the most important bats in the game. formation of the Horned Frogs. On the mound, expect to see Cam Brown and Ryan Vanderhei, the expected 1-2 punch atop the TCU’s starting rotation.
Vanderbilt is looking to recapture the glory of its title-winning 2019 CWS season and can count on one of the best pitching teams in the country to do so. Carter Holton is the undisputed ace of the group but the bullpen is just as good, if not better. Outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. is — to put it plainly — one of the best players in college baseball, and the Commodores can rely on his bat just as much as his outstanding defense.
Oklahoma State enters this season with stability in the lineup and all but on the mound. While the batting order may look quite similar to last year, the starting rotation and bullpen have been overhauled. That being said, the Cowboys have plenty of talent on their arm (led by 6-foot-8 sophomore Ryan Ure) that could help them reach their 10th straight NCAA Tournament.
Texas, meanwhile, has plenty of questions to answer when it comes to replacing last year’s tournament squad production. Here are two names to watch: Dylan Campbell and Jalin Flores. Campbell is an all-around hitter who can hit for average and power, while Flores is the Longhorns star of the incoming freshman class and a solid third baseman who brings major pop to the plate.
