Levine-Fricke Field is a

college softball College softball is softball as played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education, predominantly in the United States. College softball is normally played by women at the Intercollegiate level, whereas college baseball is nor ...

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, on the campus of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. Opened in 1995, it is the home field of the

California Golden Bears The California Golden Bears are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Berkeley. Referred to in athletic competition as ''California'' or ''Cal'', the university fields 30 varsity athletic programs and various club te ...

of the

Pac-12 The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

, with a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 1,204. Levine-Fricke Field is located in the Strawberry Canyon just east of

California Memorial Stadium California Memorial Stadium also known simply and commonly as Memorial Stadium is an outdoor college football stadium on the west coast of the United States, located on the campus of the University of California in Berkeley, California. It is ...

and Witter Rugby Field.

History

The California softball program opened Levine-Fricke Field in 1995 after playing at Hearst Field (now the Hearst Field Annex) and Strawberry Field (now Witter Rugby Field) and has seen a great deal of success since the facility opened. Since 1995, California has won a national championship (2002), a conference championship (2005), made nine

Women's College World Series The Women's College World Series (WCWS) is the final portion of the NCAA Division I softball tournament for college softball in the United States. Eight teams participate in the WCWS, which begins with a double-elimination tournament. In other wo ...

appearances, and has made the NCAA tournament every year since then. Since the 2000 season, Levine-Fricke Field has seen an average attendance figure of around 300 (around 47,000 total over a span of around 160 games) with the largest single game attendance figure of 1,069 (88.8% capacity) recorded on April 29, 2012 in a game against UCLA (the previous record was 969, which was set in a game against Arizona in 2004). The 2004 season saw Cal softball's best single season attendance average of around 400 (80% capacity); however, it is likely that once the 2012 season ends, it will surpass the 2002 season (2012 average as of April 29 is around 440). California generally sees its largest crowds for their Saturday and Sunday games because all games (both weekday and weekend) are played during the day with first pitch usually scheduled between 12:00p and 3:00p Pacific Time. The facility opened in 1995 and originally had a capacity of 500 seats and about 600-700 with standing room only. Despite being a fairly new stadium, Levine-Fricke Field does not have lights to support night softball games and up until the opening of the Simpson Center in 2011, the softball program's locker rooms and training facilities were woefully out of date. Other than the addition of the Simpson Center near Memorial Stadium, Levine-Fricke Field itself has also seen some changes in 2012: the athletic department on April 11, 2012 announced that it had added 704 new bleacher seats to the stadium, which more than doubled its capacity, bringing it up to 1,204 from just 500. On May 13, 2012, it was announced that Levine-Fricke Field would host postseason action for the first time in the venue's history. To bring the stadium up to NCAA standards, California brought in a temporary press box structure and temporary lights to accommodate night games and large television crews.

Future

Despite the fact that the California softball program has been one of the more successful programs in the country, and earning a national seed on many different occasions in the past, the Bears hosted NCAA tournament games in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

for the first time since the 1993 season (the team then played at Strawberry Field).http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/cal/sports/w-softbl/auto_pdf/2011-12/misc_non_event/2012SoftballRecordBook.pdf The main reason for this, is that Levine-Fricke Field is not considered up to NCAA standards because of its inability to host television crews and have night games. To remedy this problem in 2012, California brought in temporary upgrades to the facility for the Berkeley Regional and Super Regional. Because of the new

Pac-12 Network The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquart ...

, it is quite possible that California will have a more permanent solution to many of the venue's problems in the near future.

References

External links

{{Pacific-12 Conference softball venue navbox 1995 establishments in California Softball venues in California Sports venues in Berkeley, California University of California, Berkeley