Area Baseball Team Gets Memorable Practice Day At Blue Wahoos Stadium
The players from the St. Paul’s Episcopal Saints from Mobile had cell phones ready when stepping from the dugout tunnel entrance at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Their first experience on the field was captured with images and videos. The Saints varsity high school team, a group of 18 players and four
The players from the St. Paul’s Episcopal Saints from Mobile had cell phones ready when stepping from the dugout tunnel entrance at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
Their first experience on the field was captured with images and videos.
The Saints varsity high school team, a group of 18 players and four coaches, visited on Sunday for a full day of batting practice, defensive drills, a mid-day lunch, followed by an intrasquad game. The team rented the ballpark for a preseason workout and team bonding outing.
They made the trip from their school in Mobile to Pensacola on Saturday for a fellowship gathering. As the weather fortunes turned out, that day was inclement weather that prevented playing baseball. So the field experience was changed to the following day, which was clear blue skies and comfortable late-morning to mid-afternoon temperatures.
The Saints had distinction of being the first baseball played in 2024 at Blue Wahoos Stadium.
“This was awesome,” said the team’s acclaimed coach Andy Robbins, who was inducted in 2017 into the Alabama Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. “We had not been able to get outside on our field for a week, so being able to do this was so great.”
Robbins has been involved in high school baseball for more than 35 years and is approaching 1,000 career wins this season, making him one of Alabama’s all-time prep coaches.
His current team was able to utilize the Blue Wahoos dugout, the indoor batting facility, toured the Blue Wahoos clubhouse and was provided a lunch buffet on the home plate concourse by the Blue Wahoos food and beverage team.
The day-long experience was arranged by Blue Wahoos events sales manager Shannon Hannah, who has booked team batting practice outings and team receptions at the stadium whenever area high school teams are able to visit. The Saints went a step further with an actual intra-squad game that followed an extensive practice.
The players thanked Blue Wahoos employees, then went out and re-dressed the infield following practice. Their season begins on Feb. 15 against Gulf Shores High School.