SU baseball heading west for tourney

The Southern University baseball team will head west for the second-straight year as it will participate in this weekend’s Urban Invitational Baseball Tournament.
The Urban Invitational, hosted by Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Academy, spotlights HBCUs and their baseball pro-grams in an effort to increase national exposure. Southern will be joined by Bethune-Cookman, the University of San Diego and San Diego State University.
The round-robin tournament begins play Friday and continues through Sunday. Saturday’s games — Bethune-Cookman vs. San Diego and Southern vs. San Diego State — will be broadcast live on MLB Network. Saturday’s slate also includes a battle of the bands between Southern and Bethune-Cookman.
HBCUs have long offered quality education and athletic programs and have a proud tradition of outstanding baseball players. Hall of Famer Lou Brock (Southern), former MVP Andre Dawson (Florida A&M) and current Milwaukee Brewers star Rickie Weeks (Southern) all rose from HBCUs. Four HBCU players were selected in the MLB 2008 First-Year Player Draft, three of whom played in last year’s Urban Invitational.
Through the annual Urban Invitational Baseball Tournament, MLB hopes to help these programs revitalize baseball in the African-American community.
The complete game schedule is as follows, with times in Central Standard Time:
•Friday: Southern vs. San Diego, 4 p.m.; BCU vs. San Diego St., 8 p.m.
•Saturday: San Diego vs. BCU, 4 p.m.; San Diego St. vs. Southern, 8 p.m.
•Sunday: Southern vs. BCU, 3 p.m.; San Diego St. vs. San Diego, 3 p.m.