Crushers Stadium is a

baseball stadium A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into two field sections called the infield and the outfield. The infield is an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined in part ba ...

in Avon, Ohio, United States. It is the home of the

Lake Erie Crushers The Lake Erie Crushers (often referred as the Grapes) are a professional baseball team based in Avon, Ohio. They compete in the Frontier League (FL) as a member of the Midwest Division, and began play as an expansion team in 2009. The Crushers ...

, a

Frontier League The Frontier League (FL; French: ''Ligue Frontière'', LF) is a professional baseball league in North America composed of 18 teams – 15 in the United States and 3 in Canada. The FL is one of the eight independent baseball leagues in North Ame ...

team that began play in 2009. The ballpark has a seating capacity of 5,000 people, and was opened on June 2, 2009, with the Crushers defeating the Windy City Thunderbolts, 5–2. Since opening, the facility has been known by multiple names, including All Pro Freight Stadium from 2009 to 2017, Sprenger Stadium from 2017 to 2019, and Mercy Health Stadium from 2021 to 2023. In addition to Crushers games it has also hosted a number of additional events, particularly in college baseball.

Other uses

Cleveland State baseball

The

Cleveland State Vikings baseball The Cleveland State Vikings baseball team represented Cleveland State University in the sport of baseball. The Cleveland State Vikings competed in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and in the Horizon League Th ...

team played home games at the ballpark for the 2010 and 2011 seasons. After the 2011 season, however, Cleveland State dropped its baseball program.

Mid-American Conference tournament

From 2012 through 2019, the ballpark hosted the Mid-American Conference baseball tournament, held in late May. In its most recent setup, the top six teams in the MAC earned berths to the tournament, which used a double-elimination format over five days. The winner of the tournament earned the conference's automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I baseball tournament The NCAA Division I Baseball Championship is held each year from May through June and features 64 college baseball teams in the United States, culminating in the eight-team Men's College World Series (MCWS) at Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Oma ...

. The 2020 tournament was also scheduled to be held at the ballpark from May 20 through 24, but was cancelled in March 2020 due to the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In May 2020, the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...

announced that the baseball tournament was one of eight conference tournaments that were eliminated for at least the next four seasons beginning in 2020–21. The MAC baseball tournament, reinstated in 2022, returned to the facility in 2024.

Naming

The ballpark opened as All Pro Freight Stadium under a naming rights deal with All Pro Freight Systems, a trucking company based in nearby

Westlake, Ohio Westlake is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb located west of downtown Cleveland. The population was 34,228 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History The area now known as the city of Westlake was first ...

. In January 2017, the team announced a new naming rights deal with Sprenger Health Care Systems, renaming the park Sprenger Stadium through the 2019 season. No new sponsor was secured prior to the 2020 season, so the ballpark was known as Crushers Stadium, though the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

caused the Crushers' season to be canceled, along with the planned 2020 Mid-American Conference baseball tournament. The team announced in late 2020 that beginning January 1, 2021, the stadium would be known as Mercy Health Stadium after Mercy Health, a

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

-based healthcare provider that operates facilities around the state of Ohio, including two hospitals in the nearby communities of Lorain and Oberlin. Mercy Health had already been the team's health partner since 2012. After the naming rights deal expired at the end of the 2023 season, the name reverted to Crushers Stadium while the team searches for a new sponsor.

References

External links

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{{Frontier League Ballparks Buildings and structures in Lorain County, Ohio Minor league baseball venues Cleveland State Vikings baseball Baseball venues in Ohio College baseball venues in the United States Frontier League ballparks Sports venues completed in 2009 2009 establishments in Ohio Tourist attractions in Lorain County, Ohio