St. Pius X High School will announce the name for its newly constructed baseball field at a grand opening ceremony today, March 27.
The ceremony is set for 4 p.m., prior to junior varsity and varsity games when the Lancers take on Bayless at the new field built on 3.63 acres south of Hwy. 61-67 and St. Pius Drive. The parcel is adjacent to the rest of the school campus at 1030 St. Pius Drive.
There is no charge to attend the ceremony or the games, said Maggie Holmes, the St. Pius director of marketing.
“They’ll do a blessing,” Holmes said. “They’ll unveil who the field is named after. It’s a secret. We will thank all of the people who have worked on the field.”
Holmes said attendees may park on the school parking lot or the Big Shot Fireworks lot at 1035 St. Pius Drive.
Jim Lehn, the school’s president, said work on the ballfield, which began about a year ago, is finishing on target, with the finishing touches to be completed in the days leading up to the grand opening.
He noted that many people have donated not only funds to the project, but also their time and skills to build the field.
“It’s coming about through the generosity of the St. Pius community,” he said.
Lehn said that if St. Pius X had hired a contractor to build the field, it would have cost more than $1 million.
“With all the donated work, it cost about half that,” he said.
The building of the new baseball field is the start of several athletics-related projects in the works at the campus, Lehn said.
Those plans include converting the current Lancer baseball field into a football field with a track around it and converting the current football field into a soccer field.
St. Pius bought the tract of land for the new baseball field in September 2023 from Robinson Real Estate Easement Co. LLC based in Perryville that acted as an intermediary by purchasing the property for $1.3 million and later selling it to the school for $800,000. According to Jefferson County Assessor’s Office property records, Robinson Real Estate Easement Co. acquired the land early in 2023 from ACGMA Group LLC, a company that Tony and Claudine Adem owned.