Bill Beck Field is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

venue located on the campus of the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...

Kingston, Rhode Island Kingston is a village and a census-designated place within the town of South Kingstown in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and the site of the main campus of the University of Rhode Island. The population was 6,974 at the 201 ...

, United States. It is home to the

Rhode Island Rams baseball The Rhode Island Rams baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball team of the University of Rhode Island, located in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. The program has been a member of the NCAA Division I Atlantic 10 Conference si ...

team, a member of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I Atlantic 10 Conference. The field was built in 1966 and is named after former Rams

and football coach Bill Beck.Facilities
at gorhody.com, URL accessed May 16, 2010. It has a capacity of 1,000 spectators. The field is located behind Mackal Field House, the home venue of Rhode Island's men's and women's indoor track & field teams.

Renovations

In 2000, extensive renovations to the field began. The playing surface was leveled and resodded, and a new sprinkler system was added. In 2001, the field's dugouts were replaced. In 2002, an electronic scoreboard was installed, two

batting cage A batting cage (or tunnel) is an enclosed area for baseball or softball players to practice the skill of batting. The optimal material for batting cages is netting, and they are typically rectangular in shape. Chain-link fence is not required bu ...

s were added down the right field line, and the field's fencing was replaced. Later, matching batting cages were added down the left field line. In 2007, a $1 million donation to the baseball program led to $1.4 million renovations on Bill Beck Field. Completed in time for the 2009 season, a new backstop, scoreboard, fencing, and bullpens were constructed. Also, a new FieldTurf surface was installed.

Other uses

In 2013, the field was used for the final game of the America East Tournament, after rain and scheduling conflicts forced

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

officials to move the game from its scheduled venue, Edward A. LeLacheur Park in

Lowell, Massachusetts Lowell () is a city in Massachusetts, in the United States. Alongside Cambridge, It is one of two traditional seats of Middlesex County. With an estimated population of 115,554 in 2020, it was the fifth most populous city in Massachusetts as of ...

. In the game,

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

defeated

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

, 4–0. The venue is also used for other amateur tournaments.

References

{{Rhode Island NCAA Division I college baseball venue navbox College baseball venues in the United States Baseball venues in Rhode Island Rhode Island Rams baseball 1966 establishments in Rhode Island Sports venues completed in 1966 Buildings and structures in South Kingstown, Rhode Island

Renovations

Other uses

See also

References