America East Baseball News: NJIT has a new home

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It has taken five years for the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) baseball team to find a home. On Wednesday afternoon that home was found. In a partnership with Division III Montclair State University, the Highlanders will call Yogi Berra Stadium their permanent home next spring. The two schools, with the help of several individuals in the state of New Jersey, which includes both school presidents and members from the state legislature, will be playing ball in Yogi Berra Stadium next spring. The cost of this project is $5.3 million dollars.

The ballpark was built in 1998 and is home to both the Montclair State baseball team as well as the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center. The improvements to the ballpark include a new state-of-the-art artificial turf field, dugout upgrades, an outfield wall replacement, new bullpens, and batting cages, a new storage building, improvements to both the VIP and press box and upgrades to both locker rooms. The project will also have other improvements added on as space becomes available. When the park was built it had a seating capacity of 3,100 with room for an additional four thousand lawn seats. Independent baseball was played in the park for four years when the New Jersey Jackals called it home.

A little background on this is Montclair State has called Yogi Berra Stadium home for 25 years. They have won three National Championships and made 15 NCAA D-III tournament appearances. At Wednesday afternoon’s press conference, the two schools’ presidents NJIT Telk C Lim and Montclair’s Jonathan Koppell, spoke about how the two schools got together to work this out and hope that other colleges and universities consider similar joint projects. The ballpark, when it is completely finished, will be a great recruiting tool for both school’s baseball programs.

Both school’s head baseball coaches Robbie McClellan of NJIT and Dave Lorber of Montclair State spoke about brighter days ahead for both teams with the announcement of sharing this park. The hope is that conference and maybe NCAA tournament games could be staged at the ballpark. Surely the America East Conference will consider Yogi Berra Stadium for future postseason conference tournaments. Along with the possibility of summer collegiate baseball as well. NJIT will kick off its 2024 season on the road at Miami on February 16. Their first game in their new home will take place on March 12 vs. Seton Hall.