Trustmark Park is the home of the

Mississippi Braves The Mississippi Braves, or M-Braves as they are referred to locally, are a Minor League Baseball team based in Pearl, Mississippi, a suburb of Jackson. The team is the Double-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves and plays in the Southern League. ...

, the Southern League Double-A affiliate of the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

and is located in

Pearl, Mississippi Pearl is a city in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States, located on the east side of the Pearl River across from the state capital Jackson. The population was 25,092 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Jackson Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

, USA. The ballpark, which opened April 18, 2005, has capacity for 8,480 fans. There are 5,500 chair-back

seats A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense. Types of seat The following are examples of different kinds of seat: * Armchair, a chair eq ...

in the reserved seating areas. The grass berm beyond the outfield walls has room for an additional 2,000 general admission customers. On August 13, 2006, a record crowd of 7,652 saw the M-Braves defeat the Huntsville Stars 4–2. The largest crowd to ever see a game at the park was the 2016 Governor's Cup in which 8,542 fans watched the

Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State Bulldogs is the name given to the athletic teams of Mississippi State University, in Mississippi State, Mississippi. The university is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and competes in NCAA Division I. Sports sp ...

defeat the Ole Miss Rebels, 2–0. The ballpark derives its name from the sale of

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...

Trustmark Bank Trustmark is a commercial bank and financial services company headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, with subsidiaries Trustmark National Bank, Trustmark Investment Advisors, and Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance. The bank's initial ...

headquartered in

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...

Features

Trustmark Park features a 360°

concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or tr ...

that allows fans to circle the playing field without missing a pitch. The ballpark is in a recessed bowl with seating starting at the main level and proceeding downward. All support facilities face outward onto the concourse, thus spectators can leave their seats and not be separated from the game action. Red bricks and exposed steel

trusses A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembla ...

reflect the feel of a historic ballpark, with modern-day conveniences. The

scoreboard A scoreboard is a large board for publicly displaying the score in a game. Most levels of sport from high school and above use at least one scoreboard for keeping score, measuring time, and displaying statistics. Scoreboards in the past used ...

located behind the left-center-field wall includes a and video board that features everything from live action to instant replay to commercials. 22 luxury suites that seat between 16 and 64 fans are climate controlled and equipped with flat screen televisions, refrigerators, ice makers, serving counters and sliding glass doors that open up to private seating areas. Suites are available for yearly and nightly rentals. The ballpark also includes a picnic pavilion located in the left field corner of the stadium and two party decks located on the suite level. The picnic pavilion can be rented on a nightly basis for groups of 100 to 350+ people. The first and third base party decks are also available on a nightly basis for groups of 30 to 50 fans. Many businesses host employee appreciation functions throughout the year. There are 150 closed-circuit video monitors positioned around the ballpark televising the game. A merchandise store and a kids play area is located at the main gate. The team store is open Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm year-round. The field dimensions are down the left-field line, down the right-field line, and to center-field. The playing surface is peppered with a maze of underground pipelines capable of draining up to of rain every hour.

Events

In 2011, the venue hosted the Conference USA baseball tournament, won by

Rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

. It hosted the 2012 tournament, as well, which was won by UAB. Each year Trustmark Park plays host to the Governor's Cup, a neutral-site meeting between

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univer ...

and Ole Miss. While both teams play each other on campus as part of

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

play, this game is a non-conference matchup between the two bitter rivals that regularly draws capacity crowds. The tradition of a one-off game in the Jackson area has existed since 1980, when it was known as the Mayor's Trophy and played in Jackson proper: it was moved to Pearl when Trustmark Park opened in 2005 and thus renamed. As of 2020, the Bulldogs lead the overall neutral-site series 22–18, with a 9–4 lead in games played in Pearl.

References

External links

Mississippi Braves
{{Southern League ballparks Minor league baseball venues Baseball venues in Mississippi Buildings and structures in Rankin County, Mississippi 2005 establishments in Mississippi Sports venues completed in 2005 Populous (company) buildings Southern League (1964–present) ballparks