AUBURN | Construction on Auburn’s campus continues to move forward despite the University being closed since March 16. That includes a new baseball training facility, which has started to take form this month.

The 6,400-square foot player development building is located just outside the right field wall at Plainsman Park.

“I would anticipate by middle of fall, maybe even early fall in September or October, that thing is going to be near completion,” Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. “Now that we’ve got above ground and got the utilities and everything taken care of, this thing should go pretty quick.”

Thompson said the new facility will fill the No. 1 need for his baseball program when it’s completed in the next five or so months. Auburn’s current batting cages are stuffed in a tight space underneath the Plainsman Park stands.

In the past, Auburn’s baseball player have had to use the indoor football facility during inclement weather.

“Our cages were tight and dated. That’s one thing that we needed to make sure that our guys can develop,” Thompson said. “We play four months a year and the other eight months these coaches’ primary responsibility is to grow and develop these guys. To give them a space to do that for eight months a year is huge. This is going to give our pitchers, hitters and everybody in our program more space to develop. It has a multi-purpose facet: You can hit, you can have pitchers throwing to hitter, you can throw a bullpen.

“We are building a space that not only allows us to develop our players, but also gives us somewhere to go in inclement weather and not miss a beat.”

A new training facility is also being built for Auburn’s softball program down the first base line at Jane B. Moore Field. The 11,597-square foot building will include an indoor infield and retractable nets for batting tunnels. It’s scheduled to be completed before August 1.

See a full photo gallery of the progress of the new baseball and softball facilities below…