By JJ Sledge
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Sugar Land, Texas and watch the Diamond Dogs participate in the inaugural “Battle at the Ballpark.”
This was an early season round robin tournament involving Tech, Army, Air Force and Creighton. For three days, teams duked it out before Tech ultimately came out undefeated and was crowned the champions.
This was my first experience going to an in-season tournament as a Tech fan. And it exceeded any and all expectations I had. Here’s how I’d break it down:
Location: 4/5
- The tournament was in Sugar Land, which is on the southwest side of the Houston Metroplex. Sugar Land was named for the sugar cane plantations in the 1800s and there are still buildings from the original Imperial Sugar refinery there. While Houston has some of the worst traffic in the country in my opinion, once you can make it through that, you’ll be okay. Even at 5 p.m., the Sugar Land traffic was more than manageable. The Sugar Land area is plentiful in restaurants and hotels. You can find just about any type of cuisine you want, and there are also plenty of shopping and entertainment venues. Plus, you’re an hour or less from everything in the Houston area, including NASA, the Houston Zoo and 3 different professional sports venues.
Stadium: 3/5
- For a minor league park, it’s definitely up there in terms of good ones. Constellation Field, home of the Astros Triple-A affiliate, is located on the northwest side of Sugar Land. There are plenty of daily paid parking spots and you enter on ground level just off the third base side of the field. The stadium has a very wide concourse which makes it easy to get around. In the outfield, there is a grass berm for seating as well as a bullpen patio and a playground for kids. The stadium has also followed the trend of being cashless and only accepting cards. That being said, I do have to knock it for a couple of things: seating and food:
- While plentiful, the seating was not spectacular. The ballpark has the standard plastic seating you’d expect just about anywhere, most of which was sold as general admission. There was a second level that had premium plush seats for suite and club seating. My seats for the weekend were in the “Home Plate Box,” which includes the premium plush seats on the first two rows of the sections between the dugouts. While these are reminiscent of movie theater seats and relatively comfortable, they had next to no leg room. My knees were nearly hitting the concrete backstop. Considering one season ticket is nearly $4,000 for that seat, you’d think they’d have some leg room to enjoy.
- Unfortunately, the concessions were sparse. The stadium only had its primary concessions, the “Galactic Grill”, open during the tournament. It had your standard hot dogs, chicken, popcorn, etc. While there are stands on each side of the stadium, only the third base one was open on Sunday. Also, pricing is close to what you’d find at any professional sports venue. The cheapest entrée was at least $8 and the most expensive was the $20 popcorn bucket that had unlimited refills for a small cost. Sadly, the chicken and fries I got Friday night were clearly left over from the prior game and had sat way too long. The stadium does have several specialty food stands, like barbecue, Tex-Mex, pizza etc., for their minor league games. But I assume that they kept those closed due to expected low crowds.
Atmosphere: 5/5
- While major league games and parks are always fun to visit, there’s something special about a minor league park. It’s a great blend of professional sports with a small-town feel. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. It’s very family friendly and highly affordable. And the Battle at the Ballpark was no different. The event team treated this like a minor league game and partnered with many local sponsors. There were numerous food giveaways throughout each game. In between innings, they’d get people out of the crowd to participate in games like the dizzy bat race and the inflatable boxing gloves. Nearly everyone I talked to seemed to enjoy the weekend atmosphere.
Games: 5/5
- Going into the weekend, Tech was undefeated. So obviously, the hope from fans was at least two wins if not three. While I caught parts of other games, the three Tech games were nothing short of incredible.
In Tech’s first game against Army West Point Friday night, it was a pitching duel for over 7 innings. Army’s starting pitcher made the all-tournament team for a reason. He kept Tech in check and allowed just two baserunners in 7 innings. But in the bottom of the 8th, Tech finally broke through and scored 4 runs to take the win.
Saturday was the most confusing day. Run rule games seem to be rare now-a-days in college baseball. But Saturday produced back-to-back blowouts. Both Tech and Creighton were undefeated entering Saturday. But it appeared Tech decided they wanted that undefeated title more. Scoring 12 runs on 14 hits, it took just 7 innings for the Dogs to put away the Jays. And it was capped off by a 3-run homer from Ethan Bates to end the game at 12-0. In the second game, Army followed it up with a 13-2 thrashing over its academy rival Air Force.
Sunday was nothing short of a heavyweight slugfest. Air Force was hungry after losing their first two in Sugar Land, especially after being rocked by their rival Army the night before. And they came out swinging. Before anyone could really sit down, Air Force was up 5-0 in the 2nd inning. There may not have been panic in the dugout, but there was panic in the stands. But Coach Burroughs rallied the troops and they began battling back. After cracking the door open with a run scored on a wild pitch early in bottom of the 4th, they blew the door open later in the inning scoring 6 runs. Tech never looked back. They’d score two more runs to clinch an 8-5 victory.
Overall: 4/5
- This was a great experience. Yes, no location is perfect. But the event team in Sugar Land went above and beyond to make this an enjoyable event for fans and teams. Personally, I would love to see Tech be able to participate in more of these events going forward. Prior to this year, the last time Tech played in one of these was in 2018 when they won the Frisco Classic just north of Dallas. Many of these tournaments involve teams that are projected to compete for their conference championship. And they can help in terms of RPI which is a major factor when you look at a postseason bid. Whether it’s a road trip to a major league or minor league park or even possibly hosting a tournament of its own, I do hope Tech can continue to participate in these early season battles. It’s a great challenge for teams to play opponents they’d rarely face otherwise and a highly enjoyable experience for fans.
If I took away anything, it’s that this Tech team is resilient. They got punched in the mouth and knocked down a few times, but they kept getting up and fighting. And if they can maintain that mentality and attitude, they will have a great chance at a highly successful season.
