Jarrod Parker grew up in Fort Wayne with the dream of one day pitching at Memorial Stadium. He never thought it would happen. But it will.

The former Norwell High School star will take the mound for the South Bend Silverhawks tonight against the Fort Wayne Wizards in the final minor-league baseball game at the 16-year-old ballpark.

“It's pretty cool to get to be a native and finally close out the stadium and welcome in the new downtown stadium,” Parker said. “So it'll be pretty cool for me and the fans get to watch me throw at the old stadium.”

Beginning next season, minor-league baseball in Fort Wayne will be played at a new state-of-the-art downtown ballpark that's part of Harrison Square.

Parker and the Silverhawks visited the Wizards for two other series in his first professional season, but his spot in the starting rotation hasn't matched up with the schedule. Parker even pitched the games before and after a four-game series earlier this month.

Finally, though, the 19-year-old's time has come, and it couldn't have matched up better.

“When we heard it was Thursday, we thought, ‘How cool is this?'” Wizards General Manager Mike Nutter said. “The local guy gets a chance, the huge prospect he is, to shut it down here, to wrap up this great season. Honest to goodness, I can't think of a better way to end it.”

Parker had an outstanding high school career, going 20-1 with a 0.91 earned-run average over his junior and senior seasons at Norwell. He led the Knights to a Class 3A state title and was named Indiana's Mr. Baseball.

His high school career made him the No. 9 pick in the June 2007 MLB draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He's 11-5 with a 3.59 ERA in 23 starts this season and was a Midwest League All-Star.

In 112 2/3 innings, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound right-hander has struck out 110 batters and walked 33.

“I've been looking forward to throwing here but my starts haven't gone the right way,” said Parker, who grew up in Fort Wayne and attended Wayne his first two years of high school before moving to the Norwell district. “It's going to be pretty fun. Hopefully there will be a lot of people here and it'll be a good atmosphere.”

Nutter said as of Tuesday night that approximately 2,500 advanced tickets have been sold for today's game. He said in the past two days alone, however, more than 1,000 have been sold.

He's expecting a near sellout of roughly 7,000 fans.

Olympic gold medal-winner Lloy Ball will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.