Are you ready for some baseball? Well if you are, then you are in luck. This weekend, there will plenty of baseball at Brooks Field as UNCW hosts the annual Hughes Bros. Baseball Challenge.

The tournament, created nine years ago by Seahawks coach Mark Scalf, includes three teams and six games starting on the afternoon of Feb. 27 and ending on evening of Feb. 29. UNCW, Marist and West Virginia will be the three teams competing in this year’s Challenge. Each team will face the other twice in a double round-robin format.

UNCW opens play against West Virginia at 5 p.m. on Feb. 27. The Seahawks then face Marist on Feb. 28 at 1:3 p.m. The two squads meet again on Feb. 29 at 1 p.m. and the home squad concludes the tournament against West Virginia’s Mountaineers, Feb. 29 at 4 p.m.

The Mountaineers, predicted to finish fourth in the Big East Conference, boast five preseason All-Big East players. Junior shortstop Grant Psomas earned a slot on Baseball America’s summer All-America second team when he batted .375 and knocked in 20 runs in summer league play.

Like the Seahawks, West Virginia graduated a bevy of experienced players off last year’s team and hopes that talented newcomers will become adequate replacements.

Marist, the preseason pick for first place in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, includes Louisville Slugger Preseason All-America Third-Team player, Keith Brachold. The junior outfielder hit .421 for the Red Foxes last year.

“The (Hughes Bros.) tournament is an opportunity early in the year to play quality teams,” Scalf said. “It is the only time during the course of the year that we get to play in a setting that is similar to the setting of the conference tournament. You get to play somebody different everyday at a different time everyday.”

To go along with the experience from the games played, the tournament is also a beneficial fundraiser for the program.

“That’s how it all got started,” Scalf said. “We are able to take the funds from sponsorships and they go directly to our program.”In the past teams such as N.C. State, Villanova, Appalachian State, Connecticut and teams from the CAA conference have competed in the tournament. UNCW has been very successful in the tournament, posting a 9-0 record over the past three seasons.