Baseball Practice Facility Updates

[Ardmore_Sooner]

NORMAN, Okla. - The new practice facility for the OU baseball program at L. Dale Mitchell Park continues to take shape as the roof was completely installed last week. The rest of the building that will serve as the Sooners' hitting facility is expected to be completely enclosed in the next week.

Click the links above to see the latest progress of the facility from Oct. 1, 2008, as well as previous galleries to view the progression of the project.

The steel frame of the new indoor hitting facility was raised on Saturday, Sept. 15 next to the practice infield.

On Sept. 5, the base of the indoor hitting facility was established and 8,000 square feet of bermuda grass was installed and laser-graded last week for the practice infield, wihch is adjacent to the Sooners' bullpen.

The $1 million project, which is scheduled for completion prior to the 2009 season, will cover 22,500 square feet of existing ground at L. Dale Mitchell Park and will be located to the west of the home bullpen down the left-field line.

The new facility will include a regulation-size infield with natural grass and a 5,160 square-foot indoor hitting facility. The building will contain three full-size pitching and hitting lanes and will be heated and air conditioned.

Stay tuned to SoonerSports.com for further updates on the facility, including photo galleries and artist renderings.

[setem]

With what we have coming back we really could be decent. I sure hope Sunny can motivate them and get them to commit to excellence!

We have some new tools and our pitching should be really nice this year. We have some seasoned guys in the infield. My fellow Bentonville Tiger left the team, he was not getting much PT as it was though. I really hope Baker has a awesome season. He is a great player and I think is the leadership on this team along with Jamie Johnson.

Duke Rocha and Doyle should be great starters for us. They all have Big XII and post season experience. We have some great experience coming back all around.

Are we still going to have J.T Wise behind the plate or are we going to use someone else? I like him back there but he just does not have the gun that I am used to seeing OU catcher have. Jackson Williams had a absolute cannon for a arm and I miss that.

We could make a decent run if they get hot at the right time and stay motivated.

Anyone see the doc ESPN put out over the summer covering Augie Garrido from SAXET?

He has amazing coaching and baseball philosophy. He really is building men down there and not just baseball players. Guy is one of best coaches out there. He knows how to motivate and guide his players. He gets them doing to the right things all the time and it pays off big for him. I have adapted a lot of his schemes into my coaching repertoire and it has really worked well.