GRAND FORKS — Dave Albrecht stood at the top of UND's new softball stadium Saturday night. He looked down and saw the 800 seats and standing spots on the party porch full with fans in green. He looked down the left- and right-field lines and saw fans leaning against the fences.
He noticed others standing along University Avenue, looking through the right-field fence to watch UND play Northwest Missouri State in the facility's first game. "It's larger than life," said Albrecht, who along with his wife, Alexa, were the lead donors to build the complex. "It's awesome to see the vision we had come to life in such grandiose fashion, where you see all these people out watching girls softball in North Dakota.
And that's what it's about — growing the sport and doing something for the girls." Albrecht Field opened Saturday on a beautiful fall evening without a cloud in the sky. It had plenty of pregame festivities — ceremonial first pitches that included UND President Andy Armacost, a national anthem sung by Jim Cornelison of the Chicago Blackhawks and a flyover by a UND Piper Seminole and helicopter.
The game delivered, too. UND trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but fifth-year senior Katie Joten drilled a one-out, two-run double to the left-field wall for a walkoff game-winner. UND beat Northwest Missouri State 3-2.
Fighting Hawks players stormed the field to celebrate. Then, they gathered near home plate and yelled "thank you" in unison to the fans. "It's unbelievable that this happened like this today," UND coach Jordan Stevens said.
"It's absolutely beautiful. It played out perfectly. Just a huge 'thank you' to everyone that had a hand in this.
What a great day for UND softball today." Albrecht Field was built in just a year, turning a parking lot into UND's first on-campus softball field. It's located next to Memorial Village 2, an under-construction building that will house apartments and retail when it's completed.
"When Memorial 2 is done, and this place has vibrancy," UND athletic director Bill Chaves said, "it will be amazing what will transpire with this program." Numerous former players, who used to compete at Apollo Field, returned to Grand Forks to see the new digs. They wandered onto the field after the game and got a look at the spacious heated dugouts — one of the many amenities of Albrecht Field.
"There's no stone left unturned," Chaves said. "Dave and Alexa are engineers at heart. It's amazing.
When you get out here, you're going to keep noticing things that were actually really well thought out. It's so exciting. It's an awesome place to be on University (Avenue).
And the ability to have passing-by traffic and to do it to support this program is second to none." Attendance was estimated at about 1,500. The stands were full.
Many stood. The smell of grilled burgers and hot dogs filled the park. "Nothing can compare to the feeling of the stadium being completely full," Joten said.
"In the first inning, I think all of us were kind of freaking out. The emotions were definitely running high seeing everybody there, because we've never seen that kind of support before. So, it really meant the world.
" The experience was far different than Apollo, which was off campus and struggled to draw students to games. "I am completely floored at the crowd that came out today," Stevens said. "Thank all of them for coming.
It was a great atmosphere, a great arena for college softball. We hope to do that again. .
. maybe not like that every time, but we hope to see these guys out here pretty often. "And to pull out a win like that in the seventh against a really quality club that we had in here for the first game, I think this will be one that everyone remembers for a long time.
" Dave Albrecht said he envisions more nights like Saturday in the future. "You couldn't ask for a better night," Albrecht said. "There's no better night to have over 1,000 fans out at UND softball.
It's never happened, but it will happen again because of what we built and what the program will benefit from going forward.".
