Your quest to snag a ball at Southwest University Park can begin long before the ballpark’s gates open. Take a walk along North Santa Fe Street, which runs behind right and right-center fields. The ballpark’s open design allows you to see the field of play from the sidewalk, so you’ll have no trouble discerning whether batting practice is taking place. If so, consider crossing to the opposite side of the Santa Fe and watching for home run baseballs to leave the park, especially in right-center. Long home runs can fly out of the park and anywhere on the sidewalk or street. While you’ll obviously need to watch for traffic, standing in a safe spot along the sidewalk should give you the ability to retrieve any balls that have landed in the area.
Inside of the park, there are many different places that you can hang out in the hopes of snagging a home run ball. Southwest University Park doesn’t have traditional outfield seating, so you can essentially move through much of the outfield in your quest to snag a baseball. Try standing on the concourse in left field, spending some time on the grass berm in center field and checking out the concourse in right field between the Santa Fe Pavilion and the Big Dog House. All three are places that can give you a good shot at getting a baseball. There’s also a large, open plaza beyond the right field corner that can be a good spot for long foul balls.
Pacific Coast League players are generally very good about signing autographs for fans, so you shouldn’t have trouble meeting a number of players on either team before the game. Like many minor league parks, the Southwest University Park bullpens are very accessible to fans and can be good spots to hang out if you want to get some autographs. The home bullpen is situated down the third base side and you’ll easily have success getting some pitchers to sign for you in this area. The visitors bullpen is on the ground level of the Santa Fe Pavilion in right-center, and this can be a viable option for some autographs, too. Of course, the traditional approach of finding a spot around either dugout or down the lines before the game begins will work well for you at this ballpark. The home dugout is on the third base side.