Wednesday's warm, sunny afternoon felt like the perfect day for softball.

But without a backstop or bases, James Madison's new softball facility isn't quite game-ready yet.

The new 500-seat softball field, part of the school's Veterans Memorial Stadium complex, is expected to be finished for the start of the 2009-10 season next March.

Head coach Katie Flynn says she visits her team's future home a few times each week.

"It's just the little things that make us excited," she says. "The bat racks and the helmet racks just went in. The windows in the ticket office. And when I saw the foul poles go up, and certainly when the grass went down. It's incredible."

Flynn says the new field will be "an ACC-level facility.

It's similar to Maryland, NC State, North Carolina," she says, "and certainly the best facility in the state of Virginia."

Flynn also calls the facility "a jaw-dropper" among recruits.

"It's definitely opening doors to a different level of athlete for us. And kids can really see themselves here," she says. "It's a really big selling point for our softball program."