2026 Visit Panama City Beach College Baseball Classic preview

Some of the top junior college baseball teams line up in a 16-team early-season tournament starting Thursday.

Gulf Coast State College is the host team as the two-day event will take place at Publix Sports Park.

The field features seven teams ranked in the NJCAA preseason polls, five of which are in Division I.

For the full schedule, click here.

Below, take a look at the top matchup, sleeper team and more.

Top matchup of the weekend: Pearl River vs. John A. Logan

The game of the week has to be the crossover between No. 2 Pearl River of Division II and No. 11 John A. Logan of Division I.

The Pearl River Wildcats lost only 10 games last year, with the last of them being to Pasco-Hernando State in the NJCAA Division II National Championship game.

The Wildcats went 3-1 in last year’s edition of this tournament, with their lone loss being against Chipola in Game 2.

On the flip side, the John A. Logan Vols had the same amount of losses but had their season cut short in the Region 24 Tournament.

Division II and Division III enjoy the luxury of at-large bids, but Division I is all auto-bids from district tournaments. That was the heartbreaker for the Vols as they fell to Lake Land early on.

John A. Logan was 2-2 in the 2025 edition of this tournament, posting wins over Chipola and Florence-Darlington Tech.

Last year, Pearl River defeated John A. Logan 4 to 2, with Wildcat shortstop Jaxon Milam going 3-for-4 with a run batted in.

Sleeper team: Indian River State

The Indian River State Pioneers of Division I look to run it back after going 3-1 in last year’s edition of this tournament. Their only loss was a 4 to 3 decision to Chipola in the Sunday finale.

The Pioneers took down the eventual ACCC Division II champions in Wallace-Dothan by a score of 7 to 0 and rolled through Northwest Florida State 8 to 1.

Indian River State has been an outside contender in the FCSAA for a few years now, consistently holding winning records.

Head coach Frank Torre Jr. was a decorated leader at the high school level, posting four district championship wins and one regional championship victory at William T. Dwyer High School.

Out of their three matchups, the Pioneers will only play one ranked team in the No. 20 Northwest Florida State Raiders of Division I.

This clash of FCSAA teams is not often played, with the only one since before 2017 being last year in Panama City Beach.

Player to watch: OF Jackson Hood, Pearl River

Hood was a star on the MACCC champion team last year, slashing .354/.485/.635 with 14 home runs and 17 stolen bases.

He tacked on a team-third 57 runs driven in, with 14 of those occurring in 11 postseason games from the Regional Tournament to the Division II title game.

Hood plated two runs and drew a walk in the season-opening 7 to 0 win over Coastal Alabama-South on Tuesday. With a lot of power pop and speed to boot, he’ll have a huge weekend ahead of him in front of many pro scouts.

Bryan Portney is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email bep5295@psu.edu.