SOUTH BEND — It's hard to believe but there are only 34 days until opening day for the South Bend Silver Hawks.

This year's opener is going to be extra special for fans.

The Silver Hawks are teaming up with the Notre Dame baseball team for the first time.

A portion of the proceeds will go to the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation to fight Niemann-Pick Type C.

Both head coaches know each other — so don't expect any special treatment. Silver Hawks Manager Mark Haley and Notre Dame head coach Dave Schrage faced each other four times in college with Haley as catcher for the University of Nebraska and Schrage as an outfielder for Creighton University.

“I think the two of us together, everything’s going to be competitive. So we’ll have fun with it, you know that’s what we’re looking at is having a good time,” said Haley. “That’s an illustration of Joe [Kernan], Dave [Schrage], John Baxter getting together and taking everything in this community and the baseball community just one step better and one step closer to everything we want.”

The Silver vs. Gold exhibition game is Wednesday April 2 at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets will go on sale Saturday, March 15 at 10 a.m. at the box office, at SilverHawks.com, or over the phone at 574-235-9988.

The Silver Hawks and Notre Dame plan to make this an annual event.