Baseball: Jesuit ready to christen new park

When Father Richard Hermes, the Jesuit High president, talks about the school's new baseball stadium, his eyes light up.

"Camden Yards," he said, grinning.

That's his reaction to the brick, accented with black painted metal around the 500-seat Hyer Family Park. Jesuit will open its $2 million crown jewel Saturday night at 7 against a familiar foe - Tampa Catholic.

"It's going to be crazy," said Jesuit junior Lance McCullers, who has verbally committed to play baseball at the University of Florida. "The tickets are already sold out. People are scraping for tickets and I know students in school that are coming up to me asking if I can get them tickets. ... It's going to be packed. There's going to be a nice ceremony we have before we open up and hopefully we can do it justice and can pull a victory out against one of our rivals."

Former Minnesota Twins pitcher and Jesuit alum Brad Radke (class of 1991), will throw the ceremonial first pitch.

The complex is replete with wooden lockers and stools for varsity players, a coaches office large enough for a conference table and showers, and fold-up bucket seats in the first three rows for spectators.

For everyone involved, after ground was broken June 15, 2010, it seemed to take forever for the final product to arrive.

"We would kind of picture what it would be like playing on it," Jesuit sophomore Spencer Trayner said. "We're finally here now, so we're happy with that."

There's also the Capitano Family Trophy Hall, which will honor the school's baseball history and three state-championship teams (1994, '97, 2000).

Last week, the Tigers took the field for the first time to practice, and McCullers said it's a good thing they got that over with.

"The first practice we had out here ... we were missing balls and dropping fly balls left and right," McCullers said. "We've gotten used to it a little more."

The campaign to raise funds for the stadium has garnered $1.7 million thus far.

"I love to tell that to our team. They're not playing for themselves, they're playing for the name across their chest," Jesuit coach Richie Warren said. "It's a lot larger than what they'll ever contribute as an individual player. I think you can see that when you have something like this and so many people are involved and giving."

In Father Hermes' eyes, the stadium is a link to everything Jesuit - from the school's past to its future as well as the school's spiritual purpose.

"It was a long process, but the whole process was worth it," Hermes said. "A lot of times you're looking at things on paper and you're saying, 'What's it going to look like?' Now we look at it and we say, 'It's exactly how we imagined it. It's what we planned.' "

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