The owners of Hit House Academy — Lexie Christie, Joe Striplin, Chrissy Barnes, Jon Christie and Arien Striplin cut the ribbon for the grand opening of Hit House Academy, which offers indoor batting cages and one-on-one coaching. Photo by Brent Woronoff
A view from the second floor of the two batting cages at Hit House Academy in Bunnell. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Makayla Barnes takes some swings in the batting cage at Hit House Academy. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Savannah Walters steps into the batter's box at Hit House Academy. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Coaches of the Palm Coast Panthers, a travel-team softball and baseball organization, had been discussing for the past few years about the need in Flagler County to have an indoor batting-cage facility that players of all ages can use.
So, they decided to put their idea into action, and on Saturday June 20 they held a ribbon cutting for their new business — Hit House Academy at 2323 N. State St., Unit 168, in Bunnell.
Jon Christie, the president of the Panthers; his wife Lexi Christie; coach Joe Striplin and his wife Arien Striplin; and coach Chrissy Barnes are the owners of Hit House Academy, a two-story facility that has two batting cages with wide lanes and pitching machines for both baseball and softball as well as protective screens for human pitchers and tees for one-on-one work. An upstairs loft overlooks the batting cages and has a seating area with two TVs.
The two-story space for the batting cages allows hitters to have a higher space that more closely resembles a baseball or softball field than do many other screened-in batting cages.
The facility offers individual 30-minute batting-cage sessions with pitching machines, and monthly packages that range from four sessions to 20 sessions.
In this area, nobody has this type of indoor facility where you got climate control where people can get out of the heat and go inside to the cool air and get some hitting done and elevate their kids’ games.
JON CHRISTIE, Hit House Academy co-owner
“In this area, nobody has this type of indoor facility where you got climate control where people can get out of the heat and go inside to the cool air and get some hitting done and elevate their kids’ games,” Jon Christie said.
Hit House Academy also offers private coaching and plans to eventually add a tutoring service with Arien Striplin, a teacher with more than 20 years experience, serving as academic tutoring director. But their main focus is helping local baseball and softball players improve their hitting skills.
“We're here to make the kids grow in this community, the Bunnell and Palm Coast area, to compete at a higher level against all other teams in Florida,” Jon Christie said. “This is open to the public. We want Little League kids here. We want kids that are coming up, college kids that want to come in and get some hitting to elevate their game. We want everybody to come here.”
An individual $30-minute batting-cage session costs $40 with monthly packages starting with the Rookie package of four sessions a month at $145 and escalating to the All-Star package (eight sessions, $250), the MVP package (12 sessions, $365) and the Hall of Fame package (20 sessions, $560).
They will also offer team deals, Joe Striplin said.
“So, if you have a travel team or just a local organization that wants to get inside reps, we'll work a deal out with them per player, and they can come so many times a month,” he said.
For more information or to book sessions, go to hithouseacademy.com or call 386-313-1663.
