Las Vegas Ballpark to host college baseball round-robin event | Baseball

Baseball is back at Las Vegas Ballpark this weekend with the Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Baseball Classic featuring four college teams in a round-robin event.

No. 22-ranked Vanderbilt is off to a 7-2 start after crashing out of the NCAA tournament in June. The Commodores, who became the first No. 1 overall seed in the tournament to fail to reach the regional final, begin play at 2 p.m. Friday against UC Irvine.

No. 24-ranked Oregon (8-0) will face Arizona at 6 p.m. Friday. Arizona, which advanced to the College World Series last season, is off to a 1-7 start. Junior pitcher Owen Kramkowski is a top-100 MLB draft prospect and could get the nod.

“He’s a super-projectable right-handed guy — fastball, cutter who’s mid-, high-90s,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski told reporters. “Great arm.”

Oregon sophomore catcher Burke-Lee Mabeus, who starred at Bishop Gorman High, told reporters he was looking forward to coming home but it wouldn’t be his main focus.

“I love my family. Obviously I’m really excited to see them, but I’m a little bit more excited for the teams we’re about to play,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of ambition for this weekend. We’ve all got our own opinions on how good we are as a team and the rankings and all that.”

Arizona and Vanderbilt will play at 4 p.m. Saturday in a game between programs with national championships. Two games are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with tickets available at lasvegascbc.com. Games can be streamed on D1Baseball.com.

“It should be a great tournament,” Wasikowski said of the second annual event that precedes the Athletics coming to play two spring training games at Las Vegas Ballpark in Big League Weekend.

“I think the teams that are in the tournament — (an Arizona) team that was in the College World Series, a Vanderbilt team that’s traditionally really good, a UC Irvine team that’s traditionally very good, very well-coached. There’s a reason why they put that one together, right? And it’s with a lot of good teams in it. It’s going to be exciting.”

Diamond Leung can be reached at dleung@reviewjournal.com.

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Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Baseball Classic

At Las Vegas Ballpark

Friday: UC Irvine vs. Vanderbilt, 2 p.m.; Arizona vs. Oregon, 6 p.m.

Saturday: Oregon vs. UC Irvine, noon; Arizona vs. Vanderbilt, 4 p.m.

Sunday: Vanderbilt vs. Oregon, 11 a.m.; UC Irvine vs. Arizona, 3 p.m.