The Cabrillo High School Conqs baseball team played under the lights for the first time at home Saturday night after a ceremony celebrating the installation made possible by Major League Baseball’s Danny Duffy. 

The Lompoc Valley celebrated completion of the lighting project at the Don McIntyre Field in Vandenberg Village with a grand-opening ceremony held between double-header games against Santa Maria High School. CHS won both games, 12-1 and 14-0, giving the team an unbeaten season of 10-0.

In fall 2020, Duffy began working with Musco Lighting, district leaders, and Cabrillo High coaches and administrators to start planning a lighting project for the field. A lack of lighting has meant that student-athletes could not practice or play games in the evening.

Duffy committed to funding all of the project’s costs up to $1.5 million, and the district agreed to cover costs beyond the donation.

The project included the installation of eight light standards ranging in height from 70 feet to 80 feet and containing various LED luminaires. 

Duffy said that adding lighting to the field at his alma mater has been a longtime dream, crediting his parents, Deanna and Dan, with instilling a love of Cabrillo and the Lompoc Valley and supporting the project. 

“The new lighting at Cabrillo is an exciting enhancement for our students,” Superintendent Clara Finneran said.

Duffy, who was born in Goleta, was drafted by the Kansas City Royals out of high school and spent time in the minor leagues before being promoted to the MLB. 

He spent 10 years as a pitcher for the Royals before being traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, where rehabilitation from an arm injury kept him off the mound. 

He became a free agent ahead of the 2023 season and signed a minor league contract with the Texas Rangers.