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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

Baseball plans will improve field, team

Baseball+plans+will+improve+field%2C+team

The upcoming upgrades to Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field are being constructed in hopes of enhancing the baseball team's performance.

Ross Bailey, associate director of athletics, said, “We did it because we wanted to see what we could do to make it more efficient. If you ever sit still you’re just gonna turn to rust.”

It has been 12 years since the university broke ground on the stadium, which hosted the first season of Horned Frog baseball in 2003.

Once construction begins, the home bullpen will be relocated, and a new 9,000 square foot hitting facility will take its former place.

Head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said, “This hitting facility will be elite. Plain and simple.”

Schlossnagle said the developments to the stadium will also improve the baseball program as a whole.

"TCU continues to want to move forward and advance our baseball program along with the nation’s elite," he said.

Bailey said the new player development area is going to “be bigger and have a taller ceiling height. The cages will be 80 feet long so [players] will be able to do full pitch warm-up in there, but it is primarily for the batters to get realistic practice hitting.”

This is crucial, Bailey said, because, “Timing is so important, especially in baseball.”

In addition to the indoor hitting facility and relocated bullpen, the upgrade also includes a new warm-up field turf area along the left field line. Both the official TCU baseball Twitter account and Instagram account have posted renderings of the field's future appearance.

Bailey said if everything goes according to plan, construction will begin in mid-to-late October and finish around late March or early April of next year.

Phase two of the stadium master plan calls for the current batting cages to be turned into a new locker room, which will happen once further funds are raised, Bailey said.

For now, the players are excited about the impending changes.

"It pumps me up," junior pitcher Brandon Finnegan said. "All the players love when they get new things, especially when it's gonna make the program better and also make us better as individual players."

The upcoming upgrades to Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field are being constructed in hopes of enhancing the baseball team's performance.

Ross Bailey, associate director of athletics, said, “We did it because we wanted to see what we could do to make it more efficient. If you ever sit still you’re just gonna turn to rust.”

It has been 12 years since the university broke ground on the stadium, which hosted the first season of Horned Frog baseball in 2003.

Once construction begins, the home bullpen will be relocated, and a new 9,000 square foot hitting facility will take its former place.

Head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said, “This hitting facility will be elite. Plain and simple.”

Schlossnagle said the developments to the stadium will also improve the baseball program as a whole.

"TCU continues to want to move forward and advance our baseball program along with the nation’s elite," he said.

Bailey said the new player development area is going to “be bigger and have a taller ceiling height. The cages will be 80 feet long so [players] will be able to do full pitch warm-up in there, but it is primarily for the batters to get realistic practice hitting.”

This is crucial, Bailey said, because, “Timing is so important, especially in baseball.”

In addition to the indoor hitting facility and relocated bullpen, the upgrade also includes a new warm-up field turf area along the left field line. Both the official TCU baseball Twitter account and Instagram account have posted renderings of the field's future appearance.

Bailey said if everything goes according to plan, construction will begin in mid-to-late October and finish around late March or early April of next year.

Phase two of the stadium master plan calls for the current batting cages to be turned into a new locker room, which will happen once further funds are raised, Bailey said.

For now, the players are excited about the impending changes.

"It pumps me up," junior pitcher Brandon Finnegan said. "All the players love when they get new things, especially when it's gonna make the program better and also make us better as individual players."

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