BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU Board of Supervisors on Friday approved the expansion of the baseball hitting facility at Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. The project will add 4,300 square feet of space to the facility, including a 3,500 square-foot weight room.

Construction on the facility, located just beyond the right-field wall of the stadium, is scheduled to begin on June 1, and it will be completed in August 2019. The project is fully funded through private donations to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

“This is a major upgrade for our facility,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “It will provide a tremendous benefit in recruiting, and it will enable our players to operate in a much more efficient manner with their weight training schedules. An on-site facility serves a valuable time-management function for the players in satisfying all of their athletic and academic requirements.”

Mainieri said that along with the new weight room, the facility will include a nutritional fueling station for student-athletes and a locker room for former LSU players to utilize when preparing for MLB spring training.

“I think the former players’ locker room will also be a boost to recruiting,” Mainieri explained. “When recruits come through and they see the lockers with names like (DJ) LeMahieu, (Alex) Bregman, (Kevin) Gausman and (Aaron) Nola, that’s got to impress them. It demonstrates that if they come to LSU, their development as ball players can ultimately lead to them playing in the Major Leagues.

“The facility also makes a statement to our former players that once you leave LSU, it doesn’t end your relationship with LSU. When you become a part of our program, it’s for your entire life, not just the three or four years that you matriculate at our school.”

Below are some features of the expanded facility:

1,700 square feet of renovated space

4,300 square feet of additional space

Weight Room – 3, 500 square feet with 10 racks, 8 Iso and Leg presses and 5 free weight benches with dumbbell racks

Cardio Mezzanine – 920 square feet with 2 Elliptical Cross-Trainers, 2 Treadmills and 2 Stationary Bikes, with room for more equipment

Views from the Main floor and the Mezzanine floor into the Batting Cages

Athletic Training office with views into the Weight Room and Batting Cages

· Locker Room for use by former LSU players preparing for MLB spring training

Nutritional Fueling Station for student-athletes

New state-of-the-art audio-visual system and graphics