PISCATAWAY – Ron Bainton has nicer Rutgers apparel than the tattered windbreaker he wore Saturday afternoon to the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new Rutgers baseball and softball facility.

But none with greater personal significance to Bainton, one of the two primary donors, along with the late Bill Bauer, who helped Rutgers athletics reach its fundraising goal to begin construction on the $3.3 million Fred Hill Training Complex.

Bainton kept the gift he received from then-baseball coach Hill in 2005, when they met to discuss the program’s need for a new turf playing surface and an indoor practice facility.

“I swore I would never throw this jacket away until we got both facilities,” said Bainton, who traveled from his home in Nebraska and stayed for the primetime Rutgers football game against No. 1 Ohio State.

“Today this jacket goes. It is gone! If you see me at the game tonight, I will not be in this jacket.”

After about eight years of planning and setbacks, reality sunk in as Bainton, Bauer’s widow Barbara, athletics director Julie Hermann, Rutgers-New Brunswick chancellor Dick Edwards, baseball coach Joe Litterio and softball coach Jay Nelson participated in a ceremonial dirt toss complete with shovels and hard hats.

The space for the 22,500-square foot facility – located in between the baseball and softball fields and across the street from the Louis Brown Athletic Center – was outlined in white spray paint.

“To actually to see it drawn out and where the facility is going to be and knowing we are that close to it, is huge,” Litterio said. “We haven’t been this close obviously in a long time.”

Rutgers has not added an athletic facility to its campus map since it built the Hale Center for athletic training and student-athlete academic support in 1987, two years after the indoor bubble went up.

“It’s a big day especially because this was a Rutgers all-in,” Hermann said. “Our donors stepped up and underwrote this whole thing. And that’s an important message based on everything we have to get done in the next 5-to-10 years.”

The project is not related to the athletics facilities overhaul approved by Rutgers Board of Governors in May. That long-term vision, without an estimated pricetag or a timeline, includes adding a secondary multi-purpose arena that will serve as a basketball practice facility and house five total teams.

“I think it’s already had some carryover,” Hermann said. “I think our donors are starting to believe that they can build something. I think that’s the important message. It’s been a long time since our donors wrote checks and something got built. We’ve got people supporting us, writing checks, and we’ve got a lot of building to do. Now they know they can do it.”

Rutgers baseball and softball teams currently share practice real estate in the basketball arena and the bubble with several other teams during the winter months. It makes for awkward practice times and limited live hitting reps prior to the season.

“For me to walk in and out of the RAC every day and to see baseball and softball in the back of a basketball court doing (batting practice), that’s a long ways from where we need to be,” Hermann said. “So we got it prioritized and everybody got hustling on it. And just got it done.”

As baseball team captain Howie Brey put it, “We had to worry about not hitting track runners in the head with balls.”

Hermann said “bids are out” for construction but she “didn’t put a hard deadline on it because we’re not going to raise the costs.” Once construction is underway, the project will take about six months, she estimated.

The facility also is expected to be a big boon to recruiting efforts.

“I’d like to say it’s a Godsend,” Nelson said, “but it’s not a Godsend. It’s a donor-send.”

Hill, who won 941 games in 30 seasons on the field as Rutgers baseball coach, still can’t believe his name will be etched forever in school history.

“It’s pretty hard to express in words what it means to me. It’s something that I never did my job to force something like this,” Hill said. “But it’s just incredible. I appreciate it so much.”

As gratitude was expressed for donor support, Barbara Bauer, a 1946 Rutgers graduate whose family’s surname is attached to the Rutgers track and field complex and the athletics rehab center, spoke up.

“Just win!” she shouted.

Bainton, for whom the Rutgers baseball field is named, also brought with him a hand-written I.O.U. card that Hermann gave him early in her tenure, which began in May 2013.

“What it says, in part: ‘And, like you, we will find a way to get our baseball project finally going. I can’t wait to call you and get you out here for groundbreaking,’” Bainton said, reading from the card. “Mission accomplished.”

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleavy@gannettnj.com