Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park is a baseball stadium located in Charleston, South Carolina. The stadium is named after Charleston's longest-serving mayor, Joseph P. Riley Jr., who was instrumental in its construction. The stadium replaced College Park. It was built in 1997 and seats 6,000 people.
Nicknamed "The Joe" by locals, Joseph P. Riley Jr. Park is primarily used for baseball and is the home field of the Charleston RiverDogs baseball team of the Carolina League and The Citadel Bulldogs baseball team, whose campus is located nearby.
The park has hosted 15 Southern Conference baseball tournaments through the 2014 season. On March 2, 2012, the venue hosted the neutral-site game of the Clemson–South Carolina baseball series. The game, which South Carolina won 3âÂÂ2 in 11 innings, was attended by 5,851 spectators. The Citadel defeated the Gamecocks 10âÂÂ8 on April 16, 2014 before 6,500 fans, setting a new record for a college baseball crowd in Charleston.
The Citadel holds lifetime playing rights at the ballpark and has its own clubhouse in the stadium. The land that the stadium is built on once belonged to the school, and was a part of the land-swap negotiations that resulted in the City of Charleston taking over the land and giving The Citadel title to College Park.