Andy Mohr Field opens for play

Friday was a day full of promise for IU softball. It was the team’s home opener, the end to its six consecutive weeks on the road and the beginning of its own softball tournament. But most importantly, it was the day they would finally get to play on the brand new Andy Mohr Field.

“(The team) was in seventh heaven, it was absolutely amazing,” IU Coach Michelle Gardner said of the Hoosiers’ first time on the field. “The kids were so excited. It was an amazing experience for them all the way around.”

Andy Mohr Field was named in honor of a major gift from Mohr, the CEO of Plainfield-based Andy Mohr Automotive Group. The complex is being funded through private donations and athletic department funds.

Ground was broken on the new field on May 7, 2012. Construction was a race to the finish to have the stadium up and running for the 2013 softball home
opener.

“It’s been such a long time coming,” senior outfielder Samantha Heyman said. “Seeing the actual field and being on it was kind of like a dream come true for us. I thought everything seemed
perfect.”

As one of the southern-most schools in the Big Ten, IU is one of the most softball friendly schools in the conference, giving it the ability to take the field earlier in the spring and practice later into the fall.

The new state-of-the-art Andy Mohr Field will aid the team in recruiting top prospects, and will enable IU to be the host of Big Ten and NCAA tournaments due to its equipped floodlights. This could set the stage for the Hoosiers to become a nationally-recognized program.

The building of a new facility allowed the program to add year-round training resources, such as indoor batting cages. The stadium also boasts new turf field, locker rooms, dugouts, warm-up areas, press boxes and a scoreboard, as well as many other features.

“It’s got everything we need to be a competitive team and a competitive program, and I think it’s going to do wonders for us,” senior infielder Amanda Wagner said.

Andy Mohr Field also benefits fans with restrooms located in the complex. In the team’s former stadium, there were no restrooms, leaving fans with the only option being to walk to the baseball stadium next door in order to use the restrooms. The facility also features parking, stadium chair seating and concessions.

“I’ve had compliments on everything about it,” Gardner said. “The people truly enjoyed it.”

The Andy Mohr Field replaces the IU Softball Field that was located off Fee Lane. The new stadium is located on the north edge of the IU athletics campus, northeast of the Mellencamp Pavilion.

The team was host for the Hoosier Classic in their new stadium this past weekend, playing the inaugural game against Toledo on Friday.

“It was good for us (getting to play at home) because being on a new field picked up the morale,” Heyman said. “I’m just glad it’s up and running, and we’re able to play on it.”