The Bill Aker Baseball Complex is a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

venue located on the campus of

Northern Kentucky University Northern Kentucky University is a public university in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. Established in 1968, it is the youngest of Kentucky's eight public universities. The university has seven constituent colleges in arts and science ...

Highland Heights, Kentucky Highland Heights is a home rule-class city in Campbell County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 6,662 at the 2020 census. Highland Heights is home to Northern Kentucky University and General Cable, a Fortune 500 company whose pre ...

, United States. It is the home field of the

Northern Kentucky Norse baseball The Northern Kentucky Norse baseball team is a varsity intercollegiate athletic team of Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, United States. The team is a member of the Horizon League, which is part of the National Collegiate ...

team, a member of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

Horizon League The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...

. The complex is named for Bill Aker, who was the head coach of Northern Kentucky baseball from 1971 to 2000. It has a capacity of 500 spectators.

History

Prior to 2001, the venue was known as Friendship Field. In 2001, it was renamed the Bill Aker Baseball Complex at Friendship Field, in honor of former Northern Kentucky head coach Bill Aker. Aker had led the program from its 1971 inception to the end of the 2000 season and had an 807–572–1 overall record. From 2006 to 2008, the Norse played home games at what was then named Champion Window Field in nearby

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

. The facility underwent $500,000 renovations in spring 2013, immediately prior to Northern Kentucky's first season in Division I. The infield grass was replaced with

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass, used in sports arenas, residential lawns and commercial applications that traditionally use grass. It is much more durable than grass and easily maintained wi ...

. A new outfield fence, foul poles, and drainage system were also added. Prior to the 2017 home opener the outfield, warning track and bullpens were also resurfaced with artificial turf, making the entire playing surface synthetic.

References

College baseball venues in the United States Baseball venues in Kentucky Northern Kentucky Norse baseball {{Kentucky-baseball-venue-stub

History

See also

References