BAXTER — A baseball and softball indoor turf facility is opening Monday, Jan. 19, at the Westgate Mall behind Harbor Freight in Baxter.
Pitch 2 Pitch owns the facility and is an all-inclusive development program started in 2003 that works with baseball and softball players from youth to high school players.
Pitch 2 Pitch held open houses to show off its facility to Brainerd-Baxter, Pillager, Little Falls, Pequot Lakes and Aitkin baseball communities.
CJ Woodrow is the President and CEO of Pitch 2 Pitch. He graduated from Maple Grove High School and played college baseball at the University of Minnesota. He was a 2003 draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies and played four seasons of Minor League Baseball with two different organizations.
Now he leads Pitch 2 Pitch to help develop the next generation of talent. Brainerd is the fourth Pitch 2 Pitch facility opened in the Midwest, with locations in Maple Grove, Chanhassen and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
“We offer training, lessons and partner with associations for tryouts,” Woodrow said. “It started as a way to help give back and grow the game. It’s blossomed into how we can help. We added softball last year, but haven’t added teams yet.”
Brainerd’s Pitch 2 Pitch facility holds 12 batting cages, a 30-foot mound system and a 1,200 square-foot weight room. A winter membership starts at $850 and ends in April, while monthly memberships start at $88 for individuals and $100 for families.
The new Pitch 2 Pitch baseball and softball facility holds an open house for the Brainerd-Baxter Baseball Assoication Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Westgate Mall.
Conrad Engstrom / Brainerd Dispatch
Pitch 2 Pitch also offers private lessons, which will be run by local coaches. Registration for lessons is currently open on the Pitch 2 Pitch website. Area teams can also use the facility for practice.
“The 12 cages have slides, so you can configure them a different way,” Woodrow said. “We can have a tryout with pitching in a bullpen, infield defense and hitting. You can run practice inside the facility. You can open the whole thing up and throw long toss. It’s a flexible space for baseball and softball development. We try to work with high schools and the associations in March and April, so they can practice before they get outside. Now every team will have that option in this area.
“I found some really great staff just through networking. We have five baseball instructors and two softball coaches. We just have to get people to know we exist and are here to help.”
Pitch 2 Pitch is offering a Legion hybrid option to get area players more games in the summer. They are also offering Blue Ox Baseball, which is a full summer program for area players to train and practice two times a week and play games. Tryouts for the Blue Ox Baseball 15-18U teams are Jan. 31.
The new Pitch 2 Pitch baseball and softball facility holds an open house for the Brainerd-Baxter Baseball Assoication Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Westgate Mall.
Conrad Engstrom / Brainerd Dispatch
They also hope to have 10-18U teams in the fall, with tryouts scheduled for June.
“We were not expecting to have teams out of the Brainerd region,” Woodrow said. “But Legion teams reached out and wanted to do a hybrid model like they do in South Dakota. So on off weekends, if we can provide training and other games, teams can augment and add to make it a hybrid. Some Legion teams in the North didn’t have a place to play and so we want to have them all try out and put them under the Blue Ox name to try and give them a full season.”
When Woodrow was in college, he played a season with the Brainerd Mighty Gulls in the Northwoods League. He stayed with Jim and Nancy Freeman, the parents of current Brainerd High School activities director Jack Freeman.
“I call this place my second home and I thought I could do better with the baseball facilities in the area,” Woodrow said. “I called up the other area schools and it kept building from there. We found a great space and have built a good partnership with the communities in this area and it will help a lot of kids. For Brainerd to have an option to train and compete locally and develop locally is a good thing.”
Cool 103.5 radio presents a $5,000 check to the Brainerd-Baxter Baseball Association Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026, at the Pitch 2 Pitch baseball and softball facility at the Westgate Mall.
contributed
During the Brainerd-Baxter Baseball Association’s open house of the facility Wednesday, Jan. 7, KUAL FM radio donated $5,000 to benefit the Brainerd-Baxter Baseball Association.
Cool 103.5 was named the 2025 John Gordon Minnesota Twins Radio Affiliate of the Year
. In a press release, Cool 103.5 stated that the funds will be used to build new batting cages at Bane Park and Jaycee’s Park and create improved practice facilities for aspiring young athletes in the community.
“Receiving this accolade from the Twins is exciting, but being able to turn around and give back to our own community is what truly matters,” KUAL FM General Manager Bruce McKirdy said. “These new batting cages will help local kids sharpen their skills and that’s something we’re proud to support.”
There is an open house for the public to tour the Pitch 2 Pitch facility scheduled from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15.