Dugan Invitational Tournament to inaugurate tournament play
Nine college baseball teams from four states will compete Feb. 3-6, 2022, in the inaugural Dugan Invitational Tournament at the new Majestic Park baseball complex, Visit Hot Springs announced Tuesday.
“Teams from Arkansas, Missouri, Mississippi and Oklahoma will compete in the first of what will become a long list of tournaments to be held on this amazing baseball facility,” Majestic Park General
Manager Derek Phillips said in a news release.
“We’ll have 2021 conference champions and conference runners-up competing in a first-class tournament setting.
“South Arkansas University and Henderson State University, both will be on hand. SAU won the (Great American Conference) regular season and HSU won the conference tournament. Conferences represented will be the Great American Conference (GAC), the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) and the Gulf South Conference (GSC),” Phillips said.
“Henderson State’s participation is especially significant because Mike Dugan was the former sports information director at HSU,” he said.
The tournament will be named in honor of Mike Dugan, the late Hot Springs baseball historian who spearheaded the creation of Majestic Park, according to Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison.
“Majestic Park is not wasting any time in fulfilling its mission to provide top-notch baseball for our local leagues and to bring new visitors to our community,” Arrison said. “We are now major participants in the sports tourism market for baseball. Majestic Park is going to fulfill its promise of becoming a significant tourism generator for our city.”
The games in the Dugan Invitational
Tournament will be played on Babe Ruth Field, presented by Oaklawn, the focal point of the Majestic Park complex. Babe Ruth Field, one of five fields at Majestic, is “perfect for high school, college and professional tournament play, with its 400 feet to the center field wall and grandstand seating,” Arrison said.
Majestic Park sits on the site where Ruth first attended spring training in 1915 with the Boston Red Sox. Ruth, along with other Baseball Hall of Fame members, spent many years in Hot Springs getting ready for the upcoming major league season, the release said.