EMORY, Va. – Emory & Henry Head Baseball Coach Trey McCall was ecstatic to learn last year that an anonymous donor had given $150,000 towards improvements to the baseball facility. The facility lacked a press box or sound system, had a chain link backstop that made viewing difficult for spectators, an aging scoreboard that did not show inning by inning scores, and very small dugouts with no safety rails to protect players from foul balls.  

All of these issues have been corrected in the improvement project which took place over the summer of 2011. Planning for the project began in fall 2010 and the construction work that began in May 2011 was recently completed. Red Oak Construction, from Wytheville, Virginia, provided design and construction services for the project. 

The project includes a new backstop consisting of a brick knee wall with netting that provides enhanced viewing for spectators, a two-story press box structure that has storage on the bottom floor and a game day operations area on the top floor, dugout extensions that enlarge the size of the dugouts, padded safety rails in front of the dugouts, a new nine-inning scoreboard, a permanent sound system, and new bleacher seating on a concrete pad that surrounds the new backstop. 

"The improvements to the baseball facility have given new life to the current student-athletes and will enhance our ability to attract talented players," said McCall "For fans, the view of the game will be clearer.  The new press box will allow us to use a Public Address Announcer and music to make the game atmosphere more festive."

The game day operations center has data and phone lines that will allow for the possibility of audio and video broadcasts of baseball games. In addition, some drainage issues that were affecting the field were addressed during the project which should result in fewer game cancellations due to wet field conditions.

"We are so grateful to our anonymous donor, and to everyone else who made this possible. Our baseball student-athletes have new excitement because of the improved facility," says Director of Athletics, Myra Sims. "These improvements will allow us to make the baseball games a higher quality experience for the student-athletes, and for fans. It will also allow our statistician, scoreboard operator and announcer to be out of the elements on those cold, blustery days in February and March when they have had to sit outside for six hours of baseball.  And most importantly for the long-term success of baseball at E&H, it will help us recruit more good players so that we can continue to elevate the level of the program."

The baseball team plays their first game at Greensboro College on Tuesday, February 14 and will open at home against the same Greensboro team on Tuesday, February 21 at 2:00 p.m.

---E&H---