The new Boise State baseball program will play its 2020 season at Memorial Stadium, the home of the Boise Hawks (Short Season A; Northwest League).
Next year will bring the first season of a new baseball program to Boise State University, which has not offered baseball since 1980, the final season before it was dropped from the university’s varsity sports. The university has been working on a plan for a new ballpark to be located near football’s Albertsons Stadium, and at one point had hoped that the facility’s opening would coincide with the new baseball program’s inaugural season. However, it was announced last month that the new ballpark would not be completed in 2020, meaning that the baseball program would play that season elsewhere.
Facility plans for next year are taking shape, as Boise State announced on Friday that baseball will play 2020 home games at Memorial Stadium. The announcement provides more certainty as to where Boise State will play home games next spring, while giving the baseball program a facility as it works on a permanent ballpark plan. More from the Idaho Statesman:
“We are excited to have a place to call home as we work through the process of developing something permanent,” head coach Gary Van Tol said news release.
“We appreciate Bob Flannery, the general manager of the Boise Hawks, and his staff for their efforts and the opportunity to move into Hawks Memorial Stadium to play our first season in 40 years,” Van Tol said. “The Boise Hawks’ support and experience in professional baseball will provide our players, staff and fans a quality environment and venue that will make our first season a special one.”
Boise State’s first home game next season is slated for February 28, when it will host Northern Colorado. Memorial Stadium originally opened in 1989, and Hawks ownership is currently working on a plan to replace it with a new ballpark in Boise’s West End that would also house a professional soccer club in Division II USL Championship.
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