Mercy Health Stadium is a
baseball park
A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...
in
Avon, Ohio
Avon ( ) is a city in northeastern Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The population was 24,847 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Cleveland metropolitan area.
History
In the 17th century, what is now Avon, Avon Lake, Bay Village, and West ...
, United States. It is the home of the
Lake Erie Crushers
The Lake Erie Crushers are a professional baseball team based in Avon, Ohio, a city near the southern shore of Lake Erie. They are members of the West Division of the Frontier League, an independent baseball league which is not affiliated with Ma ...
, a
Frontier League
The Frontier League is a professional independent baseball league with teams in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Eastern Canada. Formed in 1993, it is the oldest currently running independent league in the United States. The le ...
team that began play in 2009. The ballpark has a capacity of 5,000 people and opened on June 2, 2009, with the Crushers defeating the
Windy City Thunderbolts
The Windy City ThunderBolts are a professional baseball team based in the Chicago suburb of Crestwood, Illinois, in the United States. The ThunderBolts are a member of the Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball. Sinc ...
, 5-2. The ballpark was known as All Pro Freight Stadium until January 2017; Sprenger Stadium until December 2019; and Crushers Stadium in 2020. The team announced in November 2020 that beginning January 1, 2021, the facility will be known as Mercy Health Stadium after a deal was signed with
Mercy Health, a
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
-based healthcare provider that operates facilities around the state of Ohio, including two hospitals in the nearby communities of
Lorain and
Oberlin.
Other uses
Cleveland State baseball
The
Cleveland State Vikings baseball
The Cleveland State Vikings baseball team represented Cleveland State University in the sport of baseball. The Cleveland State Vikings competed in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and in the Horizon League
...
team played home games at the ballpark for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. After the 2011 season, however, Cleveland State dropped its baseball program.
Mid-American Conference tournament
From 2012 through 2019, the ballpark hosted the
Mid-American Conference baseball tournament
The Mid-American Conference baseball tournament is the conference baseball championship of the Mid-American Conference, Division I (NCAA), Division I members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2022, the top four finishe ...
, held in late May. In its most recent setup, the top six teams in the MAC earned berths to the tournament, which used a double-elimination format over five days. The winner of the tournament earned the conference's automatic bid to the
NCAA Division I baseball tournament
The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is held each year from May through June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the eight-team Men's College World Series at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb ...
. The 2020 tournament was also scheduled to be held at Crushers Stadium from May 20 through 24, but was cancelled in March 2020 due to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
. In May 2020, the
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...
announced that the baseball tournament was one of eight conference tournaments that were eliminated for at least the next four seasons beginning in 2020–21.
References
External links
More on BallparkReviews and Photos from BallparkReviews.com
{{Frontier League Ballparks
Buildings and structures in Lorain County, Ohio
Minor league baseball venues
Cleveland State Vikings baseball
Baseball venues in Ohio
College baseball venues in the United States
Frontier League ballparks
Sports venues completed in 2009
2009 establishments in Ohio
Tourist attractions in Lorain County, Ohio