And just like that, we’re back! The college baseball regular season gets underway over Valentine’s Day weekend and there’s no bigger showcase to open the season than the eight-team field on hand in Arizona for the seventh iteration of the Desert Invitational.
There are four first-time participants among this year’s field (Air Force, Iowa, Northeastern and Penn State) alongside returnees UConn, Kansas State and Nebraska as well as longtime stalwart Grand Canyon, the latter making its fourth appearance.
2026 Draft:
Here’s the complete schedule breakdown for the weekend with the three games in bold carried live on the MLB Network with Gregg Caserta, Dan O’Dowd and Jesse Borek on the call.
DESERT INVITATIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday, Feb. 13
3 p.m. ET: Iowa vs. Kansas State (Goodyear Ballpark)
8 p.m. ET: UConn vs. Nebraska (Salt River Fields)
8 p.m. ET: Northeastern vs. Grand Canyon (Brazell Field @ GCU Ballpark)
8 p.m. ET: Air Force vs. Penn State (Goodyear Ballpark)
Saturday, Feb. 14
3 p.m. ET: Penn State vs. Grand Canyon (Salt River Fields)
7 p.m. ET: Kansas State vs. UConn (Scottsdale Stadium)
8 p.m. ET: Iowa vs. Air Force (Salt River Fields)
8:30 p.m. ET: Nebraska vs. Northeastern (Sloan Park)
Sunday, Feb. 15
2 p.m. ET: Kansas State vs. Penn State (Sloan Park)
3 p.m. ET: Iowa vs. Northeastern (Salt River Fields)
7:30 p.m. ET: Nebraska vs. Grand Canyon (Sloan Park)
8 p.m. ET: Air Force vs. UConn (Salt River Fields)
Monday, Feb. 16
3 p.m. ET: Kansas State vs. Air Force (Sloan Park)
3 p.m. ET: Stanford vs. Nebraska (Salt River Fields)
All games will be streamed live on MLB.com except for Friday's contest between Northeastern and Grand Canyon.
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TOP PROSPECTS TO KNOW
While there are no Top 100 Draft prospects on hand at this year’s tournament, there’s plenty of potential 2026 Day 1 talent to watch.
Harrison Feinberg (the 2025 Co-CAA Player of the Year) was named to the Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List and figures to be a force at the heart of the Northeastern lineup as he moves around the outfield this spring. UConn’s Tyler Minick and Nebraska’s Ty Horn will deliver the best mano-a-mano matchup of the weekend as a Big East Player of the Year candidate takes on a 6-foot-2 hurler who dominated UCLA (and No. 1 overall Draft prospect Roch Cholowsky) in last season’s Big Ten Conference title game. Third baseman Bryce Molinaro was a 17th-round choice by the Nationals last July but decided to return and finish his degree at Penn State, where he finished second on the club with 61 RBIs for the season. Grand Canyon has a pair of hurlers -- Garrett Ahern and Chase Frey -- who have popped up on evaluators’ radars, looking to continue a strong tradition of ‘Lopes earmarked for the pros with 16 Draft selections in the past five years.
Among this year’s crop of players, there are 40 former participants from MLB Summer Leagues (Appalachian League and Draft League) and MLB Develops programs. For the first time, the four-day event will span five different ballparks, four of which (Goodyear Ballpark, Salt River Fields, Scottsdale Stadium and Sloan Park) are home to big league Spring Training contests. In addition to providing stout early-season competition, the Desert Invitational provides a chance for collegiate players to perform at venues that could await them in the pro ranks.