IOWA CITY

The hot summer day seemed the same.

But it wasn’t the same.

Baseball is still baseball.

But it wasn’t.

The infield practice, the warmups, the dugout chatter, the hitting and the defense and the stolen bases and the high fives.

It was all the same, but it wasn’t.

For one evening, June 25, maybe the only night like this ever for the high school baseball players from Lone Tree and Calamus-Wheatland, a doubleheader was played at the University of Iowa’s Duane Banks Stadium.

Even a trip to the state tournament doesn’t put a high school team in a Big Ten stadium.

Instead of swatting away bugs in a crowded high school dugout, the Lions sat in the comfort of Iowa’s home dugout that is so long and spacious it seems to stretch into right field.

Instead of pulling up lawn chairs behind the backstop or along the first-base line at Lone Tree, spectators sat in real stadium seats.

Instead of battling bad-hop ground balls, players panicked as balls skipped off the stadium’s artificial turf at high speeds, the ball sometimes bouncing over an outfielder’s head for an inside-the-park home run.

The entire night was priceless. Even if the Lions did lose twice.

“Being a senior, just making more memories,” said Lone Tree senior Jack Patterson, whose dad, Mike, played a huge part in setting up this memory because he is a facilities director at the university.

While Jack has been to the stadium many times, including playing in a fall league the last two years, let’s just say that not everyone is a Hawkeye.

“I’m personally a Cyclones fan,” said junior teammate Emmett Burke with a laugh.

Yikes.

“We got to play in a cool stadium, like in a big college stadium,” Burke said. “So that was the fun part of it. Playing on turf is really fun. And very different.”

One memory that’ll never be forgotten: Jonas Koedam, a 14-year-old incoming freshman at Lone Tree, made his first varsity start in Game 2. Right there. Under the big-time lights. On the big-time turf.

“First varsity start, so I was a little nervous,” he said. “I’d say I didn’t do too bad. They just put the ball in play.”

Calamus-Wheatland won that game, 15-2, but there were big moments for Jonas and the coach clearly noticed.

“Jonas, he’s got good, good … he’s got varsity stuff,” Lone Tree head coach Mike Eden said. “He’s just not there as far as his location, understanding how he can get through stuff when it comes to the game.”

Also jumping in was another eighth grader, Travis Ford.

These are the pitching arms of Lone Tree’s future, taking the ball on a huge stage in Iowa City.

“They’re going to be big when it comes down to the stretch and also next year,” Eden said. “They’re going to be really big. I think that they both did a really good job and executed pitches most of the time.”

And they did it on a turf pitching mound that has no dirt.

It IS different.

“I think it’s a good experience for the kids,” Eden said. “We always try to play at West Liberty (a turf field) even though we usually do a home and away. It’s a cool experience with this turf. It’s a different thing. This a cool place. Something they’ll never probably get a chance to do in their lifetime.”

And that’s the thing.

It’s certainly what Mike Patterson realized for his son and the rest of the Lions.

Getting the chance to play at Duane Banks Stadium was a memory. It’s a night that most high school baseball players don’t receive. They may never be here again. At the end of the night, after coaches Eden and Trevor McFarland huddled with the team in the outfield, they assembled in front of home plate with the help of athletics director Amber Jacque so that parents and spectators could take cellphone photos of what was indeed a special night.

A memory.

“Going into the season, we didn’t think we’d play here,” Jack Patterson said. “It was really fun. And I thank my dad for it.”

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul