Photos Special to Bison Illustrated
After eight Summit League tournament championships and NCAA Regional appearances, head coach Darren Mueller and the NDSU softball team is getting a much-needed upgrade to their home field. The Bison play around 10 games a season at the Ellig Sports Complex, but if they’re going to continue to win the conference title, they need to have their field prepared to host the league tournament. NDSU poured $800,000 into the complex this fall. Improvements to the playing surface, the outfield wall and opponent’s bullpen will commence during Phase II at the end of the season.
“One of our players the other day said they can’t wait for the first game at home. It’s something we’ve never heard before. It’s exciting. I drive by there, and I’ve told Matt (Larsen) this on many occasions, I’ll just sit out in the parking lot and look at it and just think, ‘Man, I can’t believe we have this sitting out there.’” — Darren Mueller, Softball Head Coach
18%
The Bison will play 10 of their 55 regular season games at home this season.
ANATOMY
Opened – 1997
Teams – Softball
Capacity – 552
FEATURES
- The Ellig Sports Complex softball stadium underwent an $800,000 renovation this past fall and will continue after the 2018 season.
- The renovation included chair-back seating in the grandstand, padded concrete backstop and new netting going from dugout to dugout.
- Daktronics installed a new 10-inning scoreboard beyond the centerfield fence.
“Everyone is pumped. We had individuals (workouts) there all fall…everybody would take a picture of it and put it on their SnapChat stories and say, ‘It’s coming along!’ It looks super good.” — Jacquelyn Sertic, Senior Pitcher
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