HOME AND AWAY TEAM DESINGATIONS ANNOUNCED FOR BIG TEN/BIG EAST CHALLENGE
Early Season College Baseball Event Set for St. Pete/Clearwater Area Feb. 26-28
                                                                                                                       

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Home and away team designations for the 2010 Big Ten/BIG EAST Baseball Challenge, hosted by the St. Petersburg/Clearwater Sports Commission, have been released to the public, event manager API Sports Management and Marketing announced today. The second Challenge, featuring 10 schools from each conference competing in 30 games over three days, is scheduled for current and former major league spring training facilities in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater, FL, area Feb. 26-28, 2010.

Big Ten teams will be the designated home clubs for all 10 games on Friday, Feb. 26, with BIG EAST teams serving as the hosts on Sunday, Feb. 28. The honors will be shared for the games of Saturday, Feb. 27, with five schools from each conference serving as home teams. All-tournament passes, day passes and single-venue tickets are available at www.BigTenBIGEASTBaseballChallenge.com. Tickets and passes also can be purchased at any game site during the event. 

All 10 of the Big Ten’s baseball-playing institutions will once again compete in the 2010 Challenge, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State and Purdue. The BIG EAST will send 10 teams to the 2010 event, as Louisville, Rutgers and Villanova will make their first appearances and will be joined by seven squads making a return trip – Cincinnati, Connecticut, Notre Dame, St. John’s, Seton Hall, USF and West Virginia.

Games will be played daily in St. Petersburg at the Raymond A. Naimoli Complex, the former spring training practice facility of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Al Lang Stadium, the Rays’ former spring training game site. Games in Clearwater will take place at Jack Russell Stadium, once the spring home of the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Challenge will also feature a Friday night doubleheader at Dunedin Stadium, spring home of the Toronto Blue Jays, and a Saturday twinbill at Bright House Field, spring home of the World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

In addition, collegeBaseball360.com, the fastest-growing college baseball site on the internet, will be providing streaming webcasts of nine Challenge contests. For the complete schedule of games to be streamed, please go to www.collegeBaseball360.com.

The 2010 Challenge gets under way on Friday, Feb. 26, with 10 a.m. starts at the Naimoli Complex, Jack Russell and Al Lang. Naimoli hosts 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. games on Friday and Saturday, with Jack Russell and Al Lang offering starts at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. those days. St. John’s takes on Minnesota at 4 p.m. Friday at Dunedin Stadium, followed by a matchup of traditional NCAA Tournament contenders when Michigan faces Louisville at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s doubleheader at Bright House Field features Notre Dame against Ohio State at 4 p.m., with USF taking on Illinois in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.  Sunday there will be 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. games at Jack Russell, Al Lang and Naimoli.

For more information please contact API Sports at 410-472-3500.

Updated schedule below. Games in BOLD have different starting times from original schedule.