San Diego State head coach Mark Martinez (Shotgun Spratling)

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Tony Gwynn Classic Announced

For years, the Houston College Classic has been the marquee early-season tournament on the college baseball calendar. There have been other strong tournament fields in places like San Diego, Florida and South Carolina, but nothing that can match the HCC for the annual quality of the field, the format and the venue.

But another marquee early-season tournament is on the horizon. On Monday, the eight-team field for the inaugural Tony Gwynn Classic was announced; it includes Bryant, UC Santa Barbara, Kentucky, Nebraska, Nevada, San Diego, San Diego State and Tulane. The tournament will debut Feb. 26-28 and will be co-hosted by San Diego State and San Diego, with two games per day scheduled at SDSU’s Tony Gwynn Stadium and USD’s Fowler Park. The tournament will honor the legacy of Gwynn, the late San Diego State coach and major league Hall of Famer. His widow, Alicia Gwynn, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch in 2016.

The format of the tournament is one of the things that makes it really exciting — instead of a round robin with no true “winner”, the Tony Gwynn Classic will feature 12 games in a true championship format, culminating in a title game at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

“Our goal is to make the Tony Gwynn Classic the country’s pre-eminent in-season tournament, as well as baseball’s yearly coming-out party in San Diego,” said tournament founder and chairman Jack Murray (the long-time USD radio broadcaster), who is managing the event for the Tony and Alicia Gwynn Foundation.

The 2017 field is similarly strong, featuring Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon, Seton Hall, WIchita State and UC Irvine in addition to SDSU and USD. Plans are in the works for future tournament fields to include name-brand powers like Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Cal State Fullerton and Southern California.

Expect this tournament to quickly make San Diego a marquee early-season destination for scouts and college baseball fans and media.

The tournament will be formally announced at an 11 a.m. press conference Tuesday (the one-year anniversary of Gwynn’s death) under the Tony Gwynn statue outside Petco Park.