SAN DIEGO – Jack Murray is the Padres' official scorer at Petco Park. He is the voice of the University of San Diego baseball, broadcasting games via the Web and TheW.tv. The man likes the sound of bat against ball, the stick being college's aluminum or major league lumber.
 
And he is the man behind the Tony Gwynn Legacy, a baseball event in its fourth year that this weekend features some of the top college baseball teams in the nation competing at San Diego's Fowler Park and San Diego State's Tony Gwynn Stadium.
 
USD's first game in the tournament will be at 6 p.m. Friday when the Toreros host two-time national champion Oklahoma. On Saturday, USD hosts Missouri State and Sunday afternoon the Toreros face the Pac-12's Utah.
 
Other teams in the event include the Aztecs, Fresno State, Kansas State and four-time College World Series champion Cal State Fullerton.
 
"It gives us an opportunity to bring in top quality teams from across the country, mainly from outside the western region, from power conferences and play at our fields," said USD head coach Rich Hill.
 
The event started in 2016 as the Tony Gwynn Classic. From that year's participants, five teams qualified for the NCAA playoffs and two, Arizona and UC Santa Barbara, advanced to the College World Series.
 
Murray gives former USD baseball coach John Cunningham, who guided the Toreros for 35 years, credit for building relationships that drew the quality programs.
 
Cunningham, in turn, tips his cap to Murray.
 
"I think my real motivation was the enthusiasm from Jack Murray to get this thing going," said Cunningham. "He is a visionary with this kind of thing."
 
A San Diego transplant from Syracuse, N.Y., Murray says part of his motivation was to highlight San Diego baseball history. The city, after all, is the birthplace of one of the game's greatest hitters, Ted Williams. Gwynn played his entire 20-year career with the Padres and earned entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame by winning eight National League batting titles. And the area has produced a slew of Major League Baseball first-round draft picks.
 
In his mind, Murray also wanted to right a wrong with the event.
 
"I was sick and tired of eight SEC teams making the NCAA Tournament and one from the WCC and two from the Pac-12," said Murray. "We eat our own out here. Our Tuesday games are against USC, UCLA and Arizona State. So we all end up with a bunch of losses because we beat each other up. That was the whole idea."
 
The bottom line is that the Tony Gwynn Legacy has attracted top college baseball talent every year to Fowler Park. Last season USD handed Arkansas a 7-6 defeat in the tournament. The Razorbacks went on to finish runner-up to Oregon State at the College World Series.
 
To Hill, the tournament is special because it brings back memories of Gwynn.
 
After being named the Toreros' head coach in 1998 (his first season was 1999), Hill received a phone call Gwynn. Just the year before Gwynn won the last of his eight batting titles.
 
Gwynn invited Hill to the Padres clubhouse at Qualcomm Stadium and, naturally, they talked baseball.
 
"He really believed in college athletics, number one, and college baseball," said Hill. "And he loved San Diego. The best thing about this weekend and the week leading up to it is we get to hear Tony's name all the time."