The Marlins will announce soon that a high-school baseball matchup between Columbus and Belen will be the first game played at their new ballpark, at 7 p.m. on March 5.

The game appealed to them because Columbus-Belen is one of the top rivalries in local high-school sports. Belen coach Jerry Albert said a Marlins official approached the school’s principal about the idea and “our kids are very excited. It’s an incredible thing, thinking a high-school team is opening a Major League stadium.”

Though the stadium seats nearly 37,000, capacity for the high-school game will be 5000. Each school will be responsible to sell 2500 tickets. “It will sell out within an hour,” Albert said.

The Marlins will hold at least five events at the new stadium before the April 4 regular-season opener against St. Louis. The others are a Marlins-UM exhibition game (capacity 10,000; date not announced), a Marlins-FIU exhibition (capacity 15,000), and Marlins-Yankees exhibitions on April 1 (capacity 25,000) and April 2 (capacity 30,000).

PITCHING SOUGHT

The Marlins continue to explore options to add a veteran starting pitcher but have not been inclined to make offers to the top remaining free agents, including Edwin Jackson and Hiroki Kuroda. They have inquired about trades for Oakland’s Gio Gonzalez and Tampa’s James Shields, among others, but nothing had materialized.

The Marlins are under the impression that free agent Javier Vazquez is retiring, but he has not made that official. If they cannot find a better fifth starter, Chris Volstad, Wade LeBlanc and possibly Alex Sanabia and Brad Hand will compete for the job in spring training.

“We’re ready to play as is,” Marlins president David Samson said Tuesday. But he added that president/baseball operations Larry Beinfest “is looking for more pitching.”

### Asked if he is disappointed about not signing Angels-bound Albert Pujols, Samson said, “No. When Mark Buehrle [accepted the Marlins’ offer], it was all over” with Pujols.

### The Marlins expect payroll will end up between $90 million and $95 million – about $10 million higher than the team’s baseball officials expected when the season ended.

### Samson said the Marlins remain optimistic, but not certain, that they will have a stadium naming rights deal by opening day. “We were at the finish line and backed away in the last couple of weeks,” he said. “We want the right deal.” The stadium, incidentally, is 91 percent completed.

### During their stadium tours, Pujols, Jose Reyes, Heath Bell, Buehrle and C.J. Wilson (who signed with the Angels) all asked if it would be a pitcher’s or hitter’s park. “We said we have no idea,” Samson said. “We hope it’s a pitcher’s park. We told Jose we want long grass” to take advantage of his speed on bunts or slow rollers.

### Single-game tickets will not go on sale until FanFest in early March, possibly later. Samson said the Marlins expect to finish with the eighth- or ninth-highest season-ticket total in baseball but declined to give numbers. He said hundreds of tickets have been sold each day since the team signed Bell, Reyes and Buehrle.

### The Marlins, who consulted with wind experts, said it will be possible to close the roof but leave open the six wall panels beyond the outfield. The wall panels – which are 60 feet high and 240 feet wide – overlook the downtown Miami skyline. If the winds exceed 30 miles per hour, the walls will be closed. The Marlins expect the roof will be closed about 70 times a year.

### The Marlins expect at least three businesses to be operating in the plaza area outside the stadium by opening day – a sandwich shop, one selling pastries and coffee and another selling yogurt. The Marlins also plan to add a chain restaurant.