ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita Baptist University baseball team opens the 2023 season in less than a month.

The 2023 campaign starts the weekend of February 2-4 with the Dugan Collegiate Baseball Invitational, which like last year, will be played at three different locations – Majestic Park in Hot Springs, Rab Rodgers Field on the Ouachita campus, and Clyde Berry Field on the Henderson State University campus.

The Tigers open the season with two games at Majestic Park, which is where the team advanced to the semifinals of the Great American Conference championship tournament last May. Following the first two, the Tigers will be at home at Rab Rodgers Field for eight in a row, including the GAC opening weekend on February 17-18 against Northwestern Oklahoma State.

Ouachita fans will have 28 chances to catch the Tigers at home this season, including the final weekend of the regular season in a three-game series against cross-street rival Henderson State April 28-29. Most of Ouachita's home games will be broadcast live on YouTube via the Ouachita Sports Digital Network.

The GAC Championship Tournament is switching back to a previously-used format that includes the top four seeds hosting the 5-8 seeds in a best-of-three game series at campus sites for the first weekend with the winners advancing to a four-team tournament the following weekend. The GAC has announced that the final four tournament this year will be played at Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, Arkansas, the home of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals, which is the AA-affiliate of MLB's Kansas City Royals. The first-round games will be played May 5-6. The final four will be played May 11-13.

The Tigers return nearly the entire roster from last year's 33-24 team that, in addition to advancing to the semis of the GAC tournament, also punched a ticket to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008.