Cowboys Head to Frisco for A Stellar College Baseball Classic
FRISCO, Texas -- Nathan Wooldridge is the director of Events at Peak Sports Management and one tremendous visionary of who is going to be good in college baseball as unbeatens UCLA and Texas A&M join nationally-ranked Oklahoma State and Illinois this weekend for the Frisco College Baseball Classic.
"I'm the primary guy in scheduling this event," Wooldridge said in a phone interview on Thursday before the classic begins on Friday. "We put this together three years ago almost, so I got really lucky."
Oklahoma State played in the first ever Frisco College Baseball Classic with Nebraska, Arkansas, and Arizona as the other three teams. That event was good, but this one promises to be the best in the four-year history of the event.
Road trip, Texas bound.
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) February 27, 2020
Don't worry, our real favorite jerseys are packed and on the bus #GoPokes #okstate pic.twitter.com/TpirgAFOJd
It will be played in, as I thought, a stadium named after Texas' most famous soft drink and styled architecturally after Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. It's not the first Saturday in May, but these teams, especially three of them could end up in Omaha and the College World Series at the end of the baseball season.
The fireworks could get an early start with the first game at 3 p.m. on Friday as 8-0 UCLA plays 7-2 Oklahoma State. I was thinking that this could feature a tremendous pitching match-up with Bruins freshman right-hander Jared Karros (2-0, 0.90 ERA) against Cowboys left-hander Parker Scott (2-0, 0,75 ERA). The problem is the Bruins are hitting .298 as a team but Kyle Cuellar (.421), J.T. Schwartz (.424), and Garrett Mitchell (.379) are three of there top our hitters and all bat left-handed. That leaves Cowboys pitching coach Rob Walton and head coach Josh Holliday with a decision. Big burly right-hander Brett Standlee could be the guy as he has a 1.50 ERA and is only allowing opposing hitters to bat .244 against him.
Illinois (3-3) and Texas A&M (10-0) on Sunday could be better teams for Scott to throw against. Then again, sometimes you just throw your best guy and don't worry about the righty-righty and lefty-lefty thing.
FRISCO CLASSIC SCHEDULE
Friday
3 p.m. CT » UCLA vs. Oklahoma State
7 p.m. CT » Texas A&M vs. Illinois
Saturday
2 p.m. CT » Illinois vs. Oklahoma State
6 p.m. CT » UCLA vs. Texas A&M
Sunday
11 a.m. CT » Illinois vs. UCLA
3 p.m. CT » Oklahoma State vs. Texas A&M
Home team listed as second team
Tickets are still available, but Wooldridge believes they will be dealing with near sellout crowds on Saturday and especially Sunday when the Cowboys plays the Aggies. Advance ticket discounts will end at midnight on Thursday, so it pays to click the tournament website or click here for tickets.
