Upcoming facility upgrades excite Scott Stricklin

The facilities arms race in the Southeastern Conference does not just apply to football. It applies to baseball as well.

One won’t find a more competitive league than the SEC when it comes to football. To be successful, schools must be willing to invest millions of dollars or risk being left behind.

The same is true for baseball.

Fortunately, there’s finally some optimism that Georgia’s baseball facilities will soon be more in line with the rest of the league after trailing for years.

During last September's UGA Athletic Association Board meeting, athletic director Josh Brooks announced a feasibility study, not only to look at the expansion of Foley Field, but to address some sorely needed additions at the stadium long needed for player development.

Fortunately, plans are moving ahead.

Monday, head baseball coach Scott Stricklin was asked to provide an update on the status of the renovations, which hope to be completed in time for the 2024 baseball campaign.

“I remember my first year, when we got the job over the summer, we were recruiting a player against an SEC West power, and he was a kid from Georgia. When he made the decision to go to the other school, I asked him to tell me his thoughts and why, he said ‘Coach, have you seen your stadium?’” Stricklin said. “That’s the first thing he said. That’s hard to beat. We’ve lost a lot of kids over the years based on they come here to Foley over the years, and it’s beautiful. If they haven’t been to another place, they’re overwhelmed by it. But you go to other places, we’re far behind, and we know that. That’s why we’re excited about the steps in the direction we’re taking of making a major upgrade to this stadium.”

Pitcher Jack Gowen agrees.

Although the senior Gowen will not be around when the renovations are complete, he agreed that the changes being made are long overdue.

“You look around the league now, and all the renovations people are putting into their programs, we are a little bit behind,” Gowen said. “But that’s about to change.”

The biggest, upgrades, however, will not be to Foley Field’s façade. Those will take place in the areas of player development, specifically with the construction of a new pitching lab and hitting area.

Georgia is currently the only school in the SEC without a pitching lab, which essentially is a biometric laboratory where multiple high-speed cameras and motion-capture markers are used to record every detail of a pitchers’ throwing motion.

The Bulldogs’ current pitching lab consists of a tent. Georgia’s indoor batting cage is easily the worst in the league.

Other changes coming to Foley Field: A player weight room (which the facility does not have), refurbished locker room and player lounge, a nutrition center (of which there is currently not one) with coaches' offices at Stegeman Coliseum finally moving to Foley Field.

Stricklin also revealed that efforts will be made to bring Kudzu Hill back beyond the fence in right field, with capacity at the stadium expected to expand to 5,000 with additional premium seating.

“We want to upgrade this for the fans, and it needs to be, but it’s all about recruiting and getting players here, recruits to build your program,” Stricklin said. “We are going to upgrade the stadium, but now we’ve got to look at everything and put it all together to make sure the numbers all match up. But the first priorities are player development areas, a pitching lab and hitting tunnels.”

Once complete, Stricklin feels the player development additions will put Georgia’s baseball facilities among the tops in the league.

“We’re not going to have a 10,000-seat stadium. We don’t need it; we don’t want it. We want this to be a tough ticket—we need to get more seats, bring the students back to Kudzu Hill,” he said. “But with the player development areas, we can pass everybody in the league if we do it right.”

According to Stricklin, the university will use the same architectural firm that designed and constructed the recent renovations at Arkansas, which most believe are currently the top such facilities in the SEC.

“I think we all know that kids like shiny things. You can come in and talk about how quaint the place is and how nice it is with the neighborhood feel. That’s great. But go to other places in the league and you get knocked out of your chair by the facilities, and the resources they put into it. But now, we’re getting to that point,” Stricklin said. “We’ve just tried to work as hard as we can and stay positive with what we have, and now we’re grateful that we’re making the decision to make a major upgrade.”