Piper baseball’s alumni game is right around the corner and the thought of playing hard ball back on the grass has the team excited about their next season when they will be the only school in NCAA Division-III baseball to play in a state-of-the-art baseball field.

“It doesn’t happen for college athletes like us,” junior Aaron Stoneberg said. “You’re going to see an amazing spirit with Hamline baseball.”

Last month, Hamline University signed a contract to lease out Lowertown Ballpark for the next 25 years. They will share the stadium with minor league baseball’s St. Paul Saints.

This is an improvement from their former home field at Midway Stadium in many ways in addition to aesthetics. The field will be decked out in Hamline colors and the team will have their own locker room. The Pipers will also have access to an indoor batting cage, weight room and the field for fall and spring practice once it opens in 2015.

“It’s nice just to have a place where I could call home,” Jim Weyandt, baseball head coach, said. “Everyday you know where we’re going to practice and when to play. … We’ve never had that before.”

Weyandt explained in the past they had to coordinate their schedule around high school teams and it made it difficult to make up games that were postponed due to weather conditions.

He also explained how they were one of the few teams at Hamline that didn’t have their own practice space as they had to share their space at Walker Field House with track and field and softball.

Recruiting is another area Weyandt says the new ballpark will help the school. Hamline’s new baseball facility will be unparallel to any other team in the MIAC and in Division-III college baseball in general.

“That’s going to be the best D-III stadium in the country,” Weyandt said.

The Pipers are already a strong team when it comes to recruiting as they brought in nearly 30 first-years for this season. Stoneberg said the depth helps the team overall because it allows the team to be more dynamic in their scrimmages. He also mentioned that the coaching staff has a special eye for talent and helps to unveil the potential they see.

“Hamline coaches are very good at development. They see something they like and attack it,” Stoneberg said.

One of the issues the Pipers have had the past two seasons was having to relocate to other venues to play ball, due to snow flooding out grass fields. A turf field would have been a panacea to this problem, however, Lowertown Ballpark will be a grass stadium.

“If it was turf it would have been perfect,” Weyandt said.

However, Weyandt said he’s content with being one of the few college teams in baseball to play in a state-of-the-art complex.

Stoneberg likes the idea of having access to a training facility year-round and said “it’s definitely a blessing to have that.”

“To have that be ours year round … you’re excited to play this year because [we] can improve,” Stoneberg said. “That’s unbelievable, you’re giving us a good education and you’re also giving us a system a lot of Division-I schools get.”

Stoneberg said what excites him most is the exposure Hamline University will receive because of the stadium and its location in downtown St. Paul, which is accessible with the Metro Green Line light rail. Throw it in with the advertisements of the Hamline logo that’s posted on Metro Transit buses and billboards across the Twin Cities, Stoneberg said it’s “becoming a huge asset.”

“It will be great to spread Hamline’s name to everybody,” he said.

Piper baseball will open their “fall ball” practices after the alumni game on Sat. Sept. 27, at St. Anthony Park Village at 11 a.m.

As the start of training for the 2015 season is approaching, Stoneberg expressed what he’s looking forward to.

“Its hard to beat the new stadium,” Stoneberg said. “I’m just looking forward to going out and bring[ing] in the new guys.”