Dawson Classic, MLB4 teams announced

Major League Baseball today announced the participating teams in two annual showcase tournaments hosted around the start of the college baseball season – Andre Dawson Classic and MLB4. Both MLB-hosted events will be held the weekend of Feb. 18-20 in New Orleans (Andre Dawson Classic) and Scottsdale, Ariz. (MLB4), and will be highlighted through LIVE doubleheader features broadcast by MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com.

ANDRE DAWSON CLASSIC

In celebration of Black History Month, the “Andre Dawson Classic,” the tournament launched in 2008 by MLB to highlight Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) and their baseball programs, will return to New Orleans for the eighth time with games hosted at both the New Orleans MLB Youth Academy and Maestri Field at University of New Orleans. Participating teams, including seven HBCU programs, are as follows:

• Alabama State University (Montgomery, Ala.) – 6th appearance; 2012-2013, 2018-2020, 2022
• Florida A&M University (Tallahassee, Fla.) – 2nd appearance; 2019 and 2022
• Grambling State University (Grambling, La.) – 10th appearance; 2011-2012, 2014-2020, 2022
• Jackson State University (Jackson, Miss.) – 1st appearance
• Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, Texas) – 7th appearance; 2012-2013, 2016-2020, 2022
• Southern University (Baton Rouge, La.) – 14th appearance; 2008-2020, 2022
• University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (Pine Bluff, Ark.) – 4th appearance; 2018-2020, 2022
• University of New Orleans (New Orleans, La.)* – 8th appearance; 2014-2020, 2022

*Non-HBCU

Four of the HBCU schools, including Jackson State University, Southern University, Florida A&M University and Alabama State University, will be featured LIVE on MLB Network and MLB.com on Saturday, February 19th. Southern University will face Jackson State in a matinee game beginning at 1:00 p.m. CT (2:00 p.m. ET), with Florida A&M (Dawson’s alma mater) and Alabama State following soon after at 6:00 p.m. CT (7:00 p.m. ET).

Full tournament schedule (all times CT) is as follows (_dates, times and match-ups subject to change_):

MLB4

The third overall “MLB4” collegiate baseball tournament, which will have all games hosted at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Ariz. – the shared award-winning Spring Training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies – will feature several of the best baseball programs in the nation. These include the following:

• University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, Calif.) – 1st appearance
• University of Houston (Houston, Texas) – 1st appearance
• Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) – 2nd appearance; 2019 and 2022
• San Diego State University (San Diego, Calif.) – 1st appearance

Historically, the showcase has featured Vanderbilt University, University of Michigan, California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo), University of Connecticut, University of Virginia and California State University (Fullerton). The full schedule (all times MT) for the 2022 MLB4 is as follows (_dates, times and match-ups subject to change_):