NEW BIZ: Marble Falls connects with two indoor batting cages
Marble Falls is currently home to zero indoor batting cages, but that is about to change. The Dugout, a homegrown, family-owned facility, and D-BAT, a nationwide indoor batting cage and academy, are rounding the bases for 2025 openings. Construction on both businesses is underway.
The Dugout, to be located in the business/industrial park north of town at the intersection of North Ridge Road and U.S. 281, is expected to open in the “near future,” according to owner Andrew Orr, who is also the creative arts director for Hill Country Fellowship in Burnet. The project has been in the works since April 2024.
D-BAT, which has over 160 locations across the country, announced its arrival in Marble Falls with a Facebook post on April 11. As of April 29, a slab has been poured at the building site at 2161 Commerce St.
D-BAT representatives were not available for comment by the time of this article’s publication, but DailyTrib.com spoke with Orr about the two businesses.
“I think that having two cages is awesome because it gives so many different opportunities,” he said. “At the end of the day, sports are just great for families, for kids, for communities. We really just want to be a place where people can hangout and make connections, too.”
He and wife Kalena have lived in the area for five years, having moved from Fort Worth. Being a lifelong, hardcore Texas Rangers fan and participating in an Austin baseball club motivated him to establish his own batting cages and avoid the long commute to the next-nearest facilities in the Austin-metro area.
“I was trying to, no pun intended, get back in the swing of things,” he said.
He also sees The Dugout as a sort of ministry that he hopes to use to connect with the community.
“‘As iron sharpens iron so a friend sharpens a friend,’ that’s really what our kind of ‘mission verse’ is going to be,” he said, quoting Proverbs 27:17.
The Dugout will feature four batting tunnels, a full-length pitching mound, two automatic machines, and state-of-the-art results-tracking equipment for batters and pitchers. More information on training, classes, memberships, and pricing will become available closer to the opening.
D-BAT will offer lessons, camps, and clinics. Visit the company’s website to learn more about pricing and how other locations operate.