Indoor facility takes shape for Bulldogs
Mississippi State softball's new indoor facility is taking shape.
The work on the 12,000-square foot, $7 million project is in progress and Bulldog head coach Samantha Ricketts said everything is going well.
“Really excited about what we are doing there and is just something our administration has prioritized to do this right, taking care of softball, doing something we are proud of and something we are not going to have to circle back to in a couple of years to fix,” Ricketts said. “It honestly surpasses what I expected in terms of the size, the amount of money being put into that facility and everything we could ask for the student-athletes. They are going to be well taken care of in there and everything we need. We are happy to be at this place right now and we'll work around it until it's done.”
MSU will move the locker rooms to the new facility. They were previously located under the grandstand at Nusz Park.
The Bulldogs will have a place to take indoor batting practice along with showers, a team room, a team film room and equipment room.
As with any construction project, there will be some minor inconveniences for the team, but nothing Ricketts said MSU can't handle.
“We've been lucky to have great weather this fall and pretty much January we are practicing outside as much as we can, but not having batting cages like we normally would,” Ricketts said. “Baseball has been great and has worked with us to be able to get in Palmeiro (Center) when we've needed to and we've been able to shift our class schedules around so we can kind of work around them and work around the construction and everything that's going on.”
Ricketts said not having a bullpen is the biggest issue right now. A bullpen and left field foul gate will need to go back up before the Bulldogs can play a game at Nusz Park.
MSU starts the season on February 9, but it won't be home until it hosts Mississippi Valley State in a doubleheader on February 28.
“We are just waiting on the turf to arrive for the bullpen,” Ricketts said. “They've prioritized the outside structures, so when the season starts, they are not a distraction and they are working everything interior.”