New facility a big help for baseball team
By DARRELL COPELAND
When it comes to batting cages, the Fresno State baseball team ranks in the top 10 in the country — at least according to assistant coach Tim Montez.
“It’s gotta be one of the top 10 in the country,” Montez said.
With money raised from long-term personal seat licenses at Beiden Field, the baseball program was able to complete a top-notch facility to use as a batting cage and a place for pitchers to get their practice work done, as well.
Fresno State baseball players get some work done inside their new practice facility that contains several pitching mounds and batting cages. Photo by Joseph Hollak |
Montez said there are three huge batting cages and nine mounds inside “the barn,” so there is enough space for all. Also included is lighting, air conditioning, and heating, leaving the level of comfort inside the cage always pleasant.
And for good measure, state of the art video equipment is soon to be installed, as the Bulldogs look to move a leg up on the competition.
A project like this doesn’t come cheap though. Montez said the total cost of the project was around $250,000.
For the Bulldogs, however, the new facility will be — and has already been — very beneficial to the program.
“It’s a great morale booster,” Montez said.
In prior years, with rain and bad weather consistent during the winter months, the team would often have to just do conditioning while falling behind in the rest of the practice elements.
That would have been the case this January, but this time there was a place to get some hitting and pitching work in, which may have helped propel the team to a 12-5 victory over the alumni Bulldogs Saturday.
“It just saved us in January,” Montez said. “We’re able to get a lot more teaching done.”
The new multi-purpose facility also relieves the danger of pitching in the old bullpen.
In years past, the Bulldogs would routinely take batting practice while the pitchers threw in the bullpen. The bullpen, formerly located behind the left field wall and out of view for the pitchers, presented a safety hazard, as balls hit out of the park would pelt the bullpen area. Now, pitchers warm up inside of the cage, in view of the field, and are protected by a roof and multiple nets.
Yet another pro to a project with no apparent cons is the boost it should provide in recruiting. Montez serves as recruiting coordinator, so life with an elite facility helps make his job easier.
The Bulldogs have already been ranked in the top 20 nationally in recruiting twice in the past two years, coming in at number 17 for the 2004-05 season, according to Collegiate Baseball magazine.
What have been stellar recruiting years by any standard could be even better in the years to come. The Bulldogs may be able to land more highly touted players with the new ace card it now holds.
“You’re comparing apples and apples and oranges and oranges,” Montez said.
Essentially, Montez believes that Fresno State’s apple will be able to help land some of the country’s or west coast region’s apples.
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