MANCHESTER, N.H. – The Southern New Hampshire University Department of Athletics & Recreation announced plans for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open the new baseball facility at Penmen Field on Saturday, April 9 prior to game one of baseball's doubleheader against Pace University, which gets underway at noon.
The ceremony, which will begin around 11:50 a.m., will feature remarks from both Paul LeBlanc, President & CEO of Southern New Hampshire, and Anthony Fallacaro, Director of Athletics & Recreation, as well as a ceremonial first pitch from LeBlanc. Light refreshments will also be available.
The upgraded facility includes a brand new press box and scoreboard, as well as the addition of permanent seating and restrooms.
A new expanded Daktronics scoreboard features space for hits and errors, along with the number of the player at-bat and scoring decisions. The scoreboard is branded with SNHU athletics logos and sits closer to center field than the old scoreboard, allowing fans throughout the facility to follow the game.
The temporary seating behind home plate was removed and has been replaced with permanent seating for approximately 200 fans, including a total of approximately 75 chair-back seats directly behind home plate. Fully ADA-compliant, the front row of the seating bowl sits above the top of the backstop wall, ensuring a great view of the action.
Sitting behind the seating bowl is a three-story press box facility, with the first floor containing permanent restrooms for men and women, along with storage. The second floor contains a state-of-the-art workspace for media, as well as athletic communications and operations staffs, along with ample room to handle game production for distribution to television and the Web. Atop the facility is a filming deck for use by athletic communications for game webcasts, electronic media and the team itself to film games.
These improvements have enhanced what was already considered one of the finest baseball fields in the region. Permanent Musco lighting was installed in the summer of 2011, while the previous year saw the installation of a crushed brick warning track. Permanent seating down the third base line, new speakers and a new backstop have been other improvements made in recent years.
The SNHU baseball facility played host to three straight NCAA Division II East Regionals from 2012-14, as well as the 2014 Northeast-10 Baseball Championship. Southern New Hampshire has also played host to several NHIAA baseball tournament games in recent seasons.
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