Beautiful day for a ballgame: A trip to Zebulon

Since my wife won the tickets and the weather was gorgeous (low 70s when we left the house and low 80s by the time the game ended), we figured it was the perfect day for a 2:00 ballgame.  We hopped in the car and made the 50-something mile drive to Zebulon to Five County Stadium.

Because this was our first Mudcats game, we didn't know exactly what to expect.  We have attended plenty of games at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (DBAP), but the Carolina League is a bit further down the development ladder.  When we arrived, we learned it costs $5 to park in the lot.  No biggie but not something we are used to with all the free parking around the DBAP.  We waited a long time at the ticket booth to turn in our vouchers for actual tickets.  But we were definitely ready for some baseball.

Entering the stadium, we found it to be quite nice, just over 20 years old.  In fact, the team boasts that it's ranked as one of the best parks in minor league baseball.  The seating capacity of the stadium is 6500, so it has a quaint feel to it with no bad seats anywhere in the park.  We sat in the general admission seats, moving from the third base line to the first base line.  The stadium also has a nice concourse with a small store and lots of food vendors to select from, depending on your mood.

The Mudcats are the Class A Advanced team of the Cleveland Indians.  This means they are pretty far down  the line in terms of development.  This became evident pretty quickly as the game progressed.  Although there were no errors in the game, there also weren't a lot of balls hit very far.  Most stayed on the edge of the outfield.  And, what was worse was the pitching needs some serious development.  The top of the seventh inning was horrible with eight runs let in, half of them resulting from batters being walked!  In the end, the game ended in an 11-4 loss for the Mudcats.

All of that being said, it was a beautiful day to be outside and we enjoyed ourselves.  I would consider attending another Mudcats game in the future if there wasn't anything going on at the DBAP!