On the first day of Maryland baseball’s spring practice, players sprawled on their backs across the turf in the Terps’ new practice facility. As snow mounds sat outside, meditation instructions played indoors over the speakers.

“[I’m] just excited to get going today, more than anything,” coach Matt Swope said. “[We’re] able to accomplish so many different things in a shorter amount of time.”

The Stanley Bobb Baseball Performance Center opened on Jan. 14 for an internal event with the team and athletics administration. A day later, the Terps had their first practice in the building.

The facility is part of the athletic department’s $25 million “Building Champions” project, which aims to upgrade all 20 varsity teams’ facilities.

Swope’s venue boasts areas for both pitchers and hitters with technology to support analytics. Three batting cages and two pitching mounds stretch across the 8,500-square-foot facility.

“This is my space where we make guys better,” Swope said. “It enhances the niche that we’ve created across the country of, ‘Hey, you want to get better? This is a good place to come.’”

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The facility uses SensorEdge technology, where pressure plates capture the center of force in a player’s feet, tracking whether an athlete is heel-focused or fore-focused — and if they are aerial or terrestrial. Then, players are given heat maps for biomechanical analysis.

Edgertronic cameras also capture pitches in slow motion for analysis.

“You can see literally every tiny little millisecond when the hand is moving,” pitching coach Jimmy Jackson said. “It’ll be great for pitch development.”

Junior outfielder Aden Hill said the number of batting cages is great for development, letting players increase their swings while saving time.

Hill transferred to Maryland in the offseason after two years at VCU. When the Terps were recruiting him out of high school, the facility was only a rumor, he said.

Maryland athletics began constructing the center on Feb. 14, 2024. Less than a year later, the estimated $8.5 million project was completed. Associate athletics director Joshua Kaplan credited the quick turnaround to strategic planning, which ensured a timely permitting process through the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Kaplan noted the athletics department is still constructing the new softball and basketball facilities, and other upcoming projects are listed on the Building Champions website. But Swope teased future plans to add a video board to Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium.

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“I think you can build tradition there, get fans involved and be a little bit more interactive with something like that,” Swope said.

The performance center sits atop the old practice facility, known as “The Shell.” The previous facility was originally a temporary space built a decade ago that lacked heating and air conditioning.

While the facility is new, the program’s values aren’t. The Terps’ mantra — “Anybody. Anywhere. Anytime.” — is plastered across one of the walls in red lettering.

Images from the program’s history line the back wall, showcasing moments like the Terps’ Big Ten title dogpile, their 2015 upset over No. 1 UCLA and a packed Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium during the 2022 NCAA regionals.

There isn’t one specific moment Swope wants to capture next for the wall. All he wants is to win.

Swope played for the Terps from 1999 to 2002 when Maryland was an afterthought in the ACC. On their coaching staff, he’s witnessed their rise to prominence in the Big Ten over the past decade, including being one win away from the College World Series in 2014.

The performance center is the newest step in the program’s ascent. Swope doesn’t want it to be the last.

“The goal is to get to Omaha,” Swope said. “[We’re] breaking down the doors to try to get there and do something that’s never been done before.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that the Terps were one win away from the College World Series in 2015. They were one win away in 2014. This story has been updated.