Having both grown up on the western edge of Nebraska, we both understand how much baseball and softball are loved in our community.

Martin started playing baseball in the summer at age 6 in Morrill, NE, which continued throughout his youth and continued on playing in the Morrill Legion League through High School. Jennifer began playing softball at the age of 8 in the summer GGSA program in Gering, NE, and continued into the summer after High School. She also played on the inaugural Scottsbluff High School Softball team, which began her sophomore year at SHS and continued throughout her Senior year.

As a couple, we played on a few coed adult recreation teams, and eventually hung up our cleats when married life and jobs got busy.

In 2016, we began coaching our oldest Daughter, Havynn’s, t-ball team, and we quickly realized just how hard it was to organize efficient batting practices with the lack of facilities in our area, that offered access to pitching machines and equipment.

A few years into coaching, we started talking about what we could do to serve the need of batting cages that could be used by everyone, not just those of a certain club or a certain skill level; and what about year round?

With the help of our Realtor, we began seeking out facilities that could be renovated into a facility that housed batting cages. Enter the crazy real estate market of 2020-2023 and we kept falling short on our offers and ended up empty handed. We also welcomed our 2nd child in mid-2021, and life got even crazier!

In the late summer of 2023, we finally secured a space we could make work, and in October 2023 we closed on the future home of “The Dugout”.

Renovations have been extensive, and expensive, but we went into the project knowing we wanted to make it work for us and not take any shortcuts, because if we did it right, the 114 year old building may still be here 100 years from now.

“The Dugout” is a family business, which we plan to operate with the help of our girl’s when they are older, (Havynn now 12; Gracelynn now 3). The support of our family and friends has been extensive, and we are incredibly blessed to have such a great community rallying behind us.

Our opening date is 2024, but we don’t have an exact date set in stone…yet. Soon we will be sharing our renovation stories and letting you see the progress we have made. We look forward to serving the community we love with our indoor batting cage center, and can’t wait to welcome you all in!

• Martin & Jennifer Urdiales