Upcoming baseball tournaments

[MsStateBaseball]

For 2015, we have two.

New Orleans Tournament at Zephyr Field:
We will play New Orleans, Nicholls State and Southern Miss. Probabaly play one more unannounced team.
February 20-22, 2015

Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid Park (home of Houston Astros):
We will play 3 games, Rice and Houston are the hosts plus most likely Oklahoma. LSU and TAMU are in it.
March 6-8, 2015.

For 2016, we have one so far:

Dodgertown Classic at Dodger Stadium (Chavez Ravine):
We will play 4 games: UCLA, USC and two other unannounced as of today.

Two big reasons why we are doing this: recruiting and RPI. We are playing in big market areas where there is lots of potential recruits. The RPI formula has changed, a win away from home now means more.

[Goat Holder]

Well, and just showing recruits that we are playing in these tournaments recruits itself. I'll probably go to the New Orleans tourney.

Astros tournament is big time.

[HardyStreetAlumniClub]

This is great news. I love having home games early in the season at Dudy Noble, but there will be plenty more pre-SEC home games to attend. These types of tournaments get us used to going on the road and playing quality opponents.

I'd rather play in one of these on the road (especially New Orleans) than have a weekend home series with Portland in February.

[Goat Holder]

I like having one away series in the preseason, just so we can get a feel for a different park. The 3rd or 4th weekend would be good for this, that way we can still have an opening series, the annual sponsored series (Diamond Classic or whatever), this tournament then one more home series.

I've also said this before, I'd like to play the Grambling/Valley type games in Pearl. Get the attendance up. Those games are sleepers in Starkville.

[messageboardsuperhero]

This is great news. I love having home games early in the season at Dudy Noble, but there will be plenty more pre-SEC home games to attend. These types of tournaments get us used to going on the road and playing quality opponents.

I'd rather play in one of these on the road (especially New Orleans) than have a weekend home series with Portland in February.

Amen to that. It's better than playing in front of 500 people at Dudy Noble in 40 degree weather, especially since it'll be huge for RPI.

[RunDog26]

As we move further into Cohen's tenure and see the way he's building our program, playing teams like these early in the year concerns me less than it used to. This is great to hear.

[Todd4State]

I hope they ask Cal-State Fullerton and then either Long Beach State or Cal-Irvine to be the other two teams.

[messageboardsuperhero]

As we move further into Cohen's tenure and see the way he's building our program, playing teams like these early in the year concerns me less than it used to. This is great to hear.

Honestly, at this point in our program, I'd be concerned if we didn't have these type of games set up on the schedule in the future. Playing and winning these games is probably the best way to make sure you're in the hosting discussion at the end of the year.

[MsStateBaseball]

We played our first tournament under Cohen at Corpus Christie. Played Oklahoma and UCLA and I bet we still had that scouting report when we played them at the CWS. Which tells you these games are very important for postseason.