College baseball returns with a high-profile weekend of games from Feb. 17-19 in the 2023 College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The teams in the field are No. 8 Arkansas, No. 9 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Vanderbilt, No. 15 TCU, Texas and Missouri.
Globe Life Field is the home of MLB’s Texas Rangers and holds more than 40,000 fans at full capacity. The College Baseball Showdown has welcomed as many as 17,000 college baseball fans in its short history. There are nine games scheduled and all will be streamed on FloSports (subscription required).
Here is the schedule for the event, which is in its third season (all times ET):
Sunday, Feb. 19
Friday, Feb. 17
Saturday, Feb. 18
Here is 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 in the early season.
Arkansas will be welcoming in several transfers as coach Dave Van Horn looks to retool an Omaha team that lost its starting middle infield and center fielder. This team’s strength is on the mound, even with the recent loss of flamethrowing starter Jaxon Wiggins to Tommy John surgery. But the Razorbacks are still plenty talented to fight for SEC supremacy, led by returners Brady Slavens and Jared Wegner at the plate with Hagen Smith and Brady Tygart fanning teams down on the bump.
TCU is a team full of experience at this level. A couple of players to look out for are junior third baseman Braden Taylor (a preseason All-American First Team pick) and junior center fielder Elijah Nuñez, who are perhaps the most important bats in the Horned Frogs’ lineup. On the mound, expect to see Cam Brown and Ryan Vanderhei, the expected 1-2 punch at the top of the TCU starting rotation.
Vanderbilt is looking to return to the glory of its 2019 CWS-winning season and can rely on one of the best pitching staffs in the country to do so. Carter Holton is the undoubted 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 comes into this season with stability in the lineup and anything 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 arm talent (led by the 6-foot-8 sophomore Ryan Ure) that could help them reach their 10th consecutive NCAA tournament.
Texas, meanwhile, has plenty of questions to answer as far as replacing the production from last year’s tournament team. Here are two names to keep tabs on: Dylan Campbell and Jalin Flores. Campbell is an all-around slugger who can hit for average and power, while Flores is the Longhorns’ star of the incoming freshman class and a solid third baseman that brings major pop at the plate.
