PAXTON, Mass. — Anna Maria College held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday for their future synthetic turf baseball venue and multipurpose field. 

The school said the new facility will raise their profile in NCAA division three, improve the schedule of on-campus events and provide a richer experience for the campus community. 

The current baseball field has been operating out of the Northborough site and college officials said they wanted to bring it back to campus. 

This facility will also serve soccer, field hockey, lacrosse and softball for practices and some games. 

The groundbreaking featured current and former student athletes, which president of Anna Maria College, Mary Lou Retelle, said sports play a huge role in the school’s success. 

“This is an exciting time for Anna Maria College. We’ve done an awful lot on building and renovating here at the campus. This is just an extension of that,” Retelle said. “This is going to be our baseball and multipurpose field. Forty-five percent of our students are student-athletes, but in addition, with only one turf field on campus, we really limit the amount of recreational opportunities that we can do here at AMC. This will enhance it, not only just for our athletes, but for the whole student body.”

The goal for the college is for athletes to compete in the new field by fall of next year. 

Saturday’s groundbreaking was emceed by our very own Kevin Shea.