The BYU baseball team heads to San Diego to participate in the Tony Gwynn Legacy tournament after going 2-2 in their season-opening weekend.
This is the Cougars' first time participating in the Tony Gwynn Legacy, which began in 2016 to honor the San Diego Padre legend and former San Diego State head coach.
The Cougars will open against the Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks on Thursday, followed by the co-hosting San Diego State Aztecs on Friday and the UC San Diego Tritons on Saturday. Each game is slated to start at 7 p.m. MST, with play-by-play available on BYU Radio.
All three opponents are familiar for coach Trent Pratt, as he has faced off against both Nebraska-Omaha and UCSD as head coach and was an assistant on the Cougars staff the last time the Cougars played former conference foe SDSU in 2019.
Nebraska-Omaha is looking to build off of its first win of the season, entering Thursday's game with a 1-3 record.
The Mavericks dropped their season opening series at Arizona State before picking up a big 3-1 win Tuesday against the University of Arizona.
Shortstop and leadoff man Chase Diggins drove in all three runs with a bases clearing double in the top of the second, and the Mavericks pitching shined in limiting the Wildcats to just the one run. BYU will make their third straight Big 12 opponent to start the year.
The Mavericks are coming off of a 20-30 season, where they finished 12-16 in conference play. BYU leads the all-time series between the two schools with a 6-4 record, with the most recent clash coming on May 2-4 of 2023 in Provo.
The Cougars' offense hopes to remain hot coming off a 12 run explosion on Monday in the series finale against Western Kentucky.
First baseman Ezra McNaughton led the charge, blasting two home runs and finishing the game with five driven in. The Cougars also got long-balls from centerfielder Crew McChesney (his second on the year) and left fielder Ryker Schow. T
he team finished the game with 16 hits, 10 of those going for extra bases. Both BYU and Nebraska-Omaha are yet to announce a starter for Thursday’s game.
San Diego State is coming off a series sweep against LIU, starting their season 3-0. Junior Boston College transfer Adam Magpoc is leading the way for the Aztecs, boasting a .500 batting average and eight runs batted in through the first three games.
Starting pitcher Carson Johnson was named Mountain West pitcher of the week after a dominant performance on Sunday, going seven innings and striking out 11, while first baseman Max Farrell was named freshman of the week in the conference after going 5-11 and adding three walks.
The Aztecs are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 2025 where they finished 20-39 with a 14-26 conference record.
SDSU is the most familiar foe for BYU, as the two programs clashed as rivals in the Mountain West Conference before BYU’s exit in 2011. In 134 meetings between the programs the Aztecs have the edge with a 74-59-1 record. The last time the two schools faced off was May 6, 2019, a game in which SDSU won 10-5.
The final opponent of the series, the UCSD Tritons, enter the tournament with a 1-2 record after opening the season against the No. 1 ranked UCLA Bruins in Los Angeles.
They are led by junior first baseman Gabe Camacho, who homered twice in the opening series and comes into this weekend batting .364.
Similar to their cross-town rivals, the Tritons are looking to take a step forward after they finished last year with a 26-25 record, going 15-15 in conference play. The Cougars and Tritons have only played once in their history, a game the Tritons won 3-0 on May 2, 2023.
Following the games this weekend, the Cougars will stay in Southern California to take on UC Riverside on Monday.