Intramural Notebook

Pick a word or phrase: Nice, new, professional, soft, not flooded. Any of these would apply to the infields on the intramural softball fields at West Campus.

The most important adjective, however?

“They’re really smooth,” junior Cameron Lovett said. “Playing infield, there are less bad hops, and so it plays much more consistently.”

In the past, those playing infield battled unsteady footing often clogged with mud and then trying to field ground balls that could bounce at any given instant. Runners stopping at second base sometimes dealt with an impromptu slide, too.

“It’s easier because when wet, the footing is much more solid than it was last year, and baserunners don’t have to worry about sliding as much because the dirt is much softer,” junior Aaron Nobles said.

Intramural program assistant Chris Russell has heard nothing but positives regarding the play so far.

“There’s been no negative remarks this year, which is a stark contrast to previous years,” he said. “There’s a lot less rocks on the infield, and the bases are also sitting fairly level, which only improves the safety for everyone.”

One effect worth noting is the fact there has been one rainout all season; last year, teams were often frustrated by one night of rain knocking out as many as three days of play due to poor field conditions.

“The biggest change has certainly been how the fields have handled the rain so far. In years’ past, we’ve had lakes out there, but now they drain properly and the turnaround is much faster,” Russell said.

“There was a night earlier this season where we thought we’d have to cancel games because it’d been raining lightly all day, but the fields were in pretty good shape, and fortunately we didn’t have to cancel.”

A major concern moving forward is keeping the fields at their current standard. Currently, games are played four nights a week, for five hours a night. In addition, the fields are rented to Walter B. Park Little League teams for practice two hours a day from 5-7 p.m. during weekdays.

That adds up to over 160 hours of use each field will see during the six-week intramural softball season.

“We’ll need to continue bringing in fresh dirt to maintain the standard the infields are at right now,” Russell said.

For now, however, players are reveling in the upgraded infields.

“It used to be … like clay out there,” sophomore Kristin Cotton said. “Now you won’t get stuck chasing after a ground ball.”

Posted by Caleb Rule on Apr 2 2010. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry