Husson College pitching coach John Winkin had already spent more than $200,000 to finance a dramatic upgrading of the baseball facility at the Bangor-based school.

With the project facing what Winkin termed a “lost year,” he dipped into his pocket again to ensure that phase one of the facility will be completed this year.

The Braves are scheduled to unveil the facility on Sunday as the University of Maine-Farmington invades for a Maine Athletic Conference doubleheader. Game time is noon.

“I just couldn’t wait another year,” said Winkin. “I wanted to see it done this year. It’s important to get it done. My feeling is that once people see what has been done and see the potential for it, they might be interested in investing in it.

“From now on, that’s what the facility is going to depend upon. I’ve gone as far as I can go [financially],” added Winkin.

He has dug into his bank account for an additional $50,000 to bring the total price tag to $250,000. He procured the money by selling his summer camp on China Lake.

“To do it right, it cost more than I had [originally] put in,” said Winkin. “If the money wasn’t there, the project was going to stop. I felt it was important to move the project along. I wanted people to benefit from it as soon as possible. I want to enjoy it as a coach right away.

“It didn’t help that we got started later than I had hoped and we’ve had bad weather. Little things added up and it ate up our money,” added Winkin. “We will still be without the [new] bleachers but everything else will be done. We’ve done it first class.

“If something is going to have your name on it, you want it done right,” said Winkin.

The bleachers they have used in the past will again be utilized this spring.

“We’ve had a hard winter but we’re on schedule,” said Marshall Thompson, the program coordinator and Husson plant engineer.

Winkin explained that if phase one of the project had stopped, they would have had a press building without a formal press box or a Baseball Hall of Fame Room; dugouts without overhead shelves; no fencing extending from the dugouts to the foul poles and no netting behind the backstop.

Those aspects of the project will be completed now.

The press box has two booths for TV and radio and two levels of work space for the print media. There will also be the Baseball Hall of Fame room, a storage area and a concession stand.

The fencing leading from the dugouts to the foul poles will be four feet high and the outfield fence will be eight feet high.

There will be 12-foot high netting along the first and third base lines ranging to the dugouts and 30-foot high netting behind home plate.

The dimensions in the outfield will be 340 feet down each line; 375 to the power alleys and 440 feet to straightaway center field.

“We will have a Fenway center field,” said Winkin referring to the triangle in center field at Boston’s Fenway Park.

He said by having the dimensions as they are, it enables them to put a field hockey field in the outfield so the Husson women can use it for games.

They also intend to have a six-foot-wide cement walking path from dugout to dugout.

Down the road, Winkin would like to see them install bleachers for 1,000-1,500. He said bleacher “pads” will be used so that there can be a bleacher expansion if necessary.

Bleachers could eventually be extended down the foul lines.

“Right now, we’ve gauged the seating for Husson College games and local amateur games. But, who knows? I’d love to be able to hold championship events here like a regional American Legion Tournament,” said Winkin.

He also indicated he would embrace the possibility of having a minor league baseball team consider the facility when it is completed.

Winkin added that he would love to be able to eventually install FieldTurf, the artificial surface that emulates the softness of grass but has a much more consistent texture and can handle as much as 32 inches of rain in an hour. It is very safe and players don’t receive abrasions or scratches from it.

It can also be snow-plowed.

The man who runs the South Portland-based company that distributes and installs the surface is long-time Winkin friend John Huard, the former University of Maine Little All-American linebacker, NFL player and Canadian Football League and college head coach.

Winkin also said he hopes lights will be added in the near future.