The Arizona baseball team will square off against challenging and familiar foes in a tournament in Las Vegas that begins in late February.
The Wildcats are one of four participants in the Live Like Lou Las Vegas College Baseball Classic. The others are Oregon, Vanderbilt and UC Irvine.
Arizona will face Oregon, its former rival in the Pac-12 Conference, in the second game of the tournament on Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. The Wildcats played in the Eugene Regional in the NCAA Tournament in June but avoided facing the host Ducks, who fell into the losers’ bracket and were eliminated.
Arizona plays Vanderbilt on Feb. 28 at 4 p.m. The Commodores have appeared in five College World Series over the past two years and won two national championships. They defeated Arizona in extra innings in the 2021 CWS.
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Arizona’s final game in Vegas is against UC Irvine on March 1 at 3 p.m. The Wildcats have faced the Anteaters 25 times, most recently in May 2023.
Arizona coach Chip Hale throws batting practice to the Wildcats before they face New Mexico in their home opener Feb. 18, 2025, at Hi Corbett Field.
All six games in the Live Like Lou Classic will be held at Las Vegas Ballpark, home of the Las Vegas Aviators, the Athletics’ triple-A affiliate.
The Live Like Lou Foundation is a national nonprofit that “supports people living with ALS through volunteer service, financial grants and college scholarships for dependents in ALS families; funds early-career scientists studying ALS; and raises national awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease,” according to a news release promoting the 2025 Live Like Lou Classic.
“This tournament is about more than baseball — it’s about coming together to create awareness of ALS and support families facing Lou Gehrig’s disease,” Wendy Faust, executive director of the Live Like Lou Foundation, said in the release. “We look forward to rallying these teams, their supporters and the Las Vegas community to honor Lou Gehrig’s legacy and make a real impact in and for the ALS community.”
Arizona will open the 2026 season in another four-team round-robin tournament, the Feb. 13-15 College Baseball Series in Surprise. The other participants are Michigan, Oregon State and Stanford.
Contact sports reporter/columnist Michael Lev at mlev@tucson.com. On X (Twitter): @michaeljlev. On Bluesky: @michaeljlev.bsky.social
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