As for Palmer-Dixon, Walsh personally bought a halogen lamp to increase the lighting inside the building, and the Harvard operations staff laid down a carpet atop the courts, in addition to setting up the two cages.
Installing the nets imposes a slight inconvenience on the team. Before practice begins each weeknight at 7:30 p.m., the players hook up the nets themselves. When practice ends—sometimes as late as 11 p.m.—the team removes the nets in order to clear the gym for the basketball teams, which practice in the afternoons.
The process takes between 20 and 25 minutes, but the manual labor is nothing new for a team that serves as its own grounds crew during the regular season.
Between the two facilities, the team has more space and flexibility than ever before, Walsh says. On any night, he can now devote Lavities to his pitchers while assistant coach Matt Hyde can work on hitting with the position players inside Palmer-Dixon.
“Things are a lot better now,” Shakir said. “There’s fewer people standing around, more guys are working. We’re all definitely getting more swings.”
The baseball team’s facilities have edged slightly closer to being on par with those of other Division I schools. Some area schools still have an advantage over Harvard. Boston College, for example, holds practices inside a bubble that extends over the school’s articial turf football stadium.
Warm weather teams have the biggest advantage of all. Harvard’s first opponent, Rice, on March 16, has been practicing in the Texan sun for most of the winter. Plus, Ivy League restrictions that prohibit play until the middle of March mean that the Owls will have some 20 games more of experience.
Still, Shakir says the improvements in Lavietes and Palmer-Dixon has significantly brightened the team’s outlook for the rest of spring training.
“With what Operations has done for us, we’re able to hit live in Lavietes,” Shakir said. “Before I didn’t think we’d be able to face live pitching at all. So I think we’ll definitely be ready to play [Rice].”
—Staff writer Brian E. Fallon can be reached bfallon@fas.harvard.edu.