Softball infield gets a makeover

The softball field located at the southwest corner of Sprigg and Bertling Streets, has received a fresh face.

A new playing surface was laid down on Oct. 10 - 11. Coordinator of facilities management Kent Philips said the old one was becoming a problem to the players and needed to be changed. A special mixture of soil, silt and sand was blended with some of the dirt that originally existed on the field to complete the new face of the infield.

"The playing surface was becoming too hard and was becoming an unsafe playing field for our student athletes, which is the main reason the decision was made to change the dirt," Phillips said.

Many renovations have been going on throughout Southeast Missouri State University's campus this year. Added to the lists of things that needed to be refurbished was the two-day renovation to the softball infield. The blending of the dirt was a quick process that was handled by facilities management.

"The infield had become really unsafe to play on," Southeast softball coach Lana Richmond said. "It gets real hard sometimes, like concrete."

There was a risk of injury due to the rise of hardness occurring on the field, so it needed to be fixed as soon as possible. The ball was taking unexpected bounces that occurred during batted ground balls, said Richmond. There have been no major injuries due to the hardness of the old infield dirt mixture, but some bruises were caused because of it.

"We had numerous kids get hit in the chest, arms and face because of the unexpected bounce the ball would take," Richmond said. "Some would just come up and would hit them, but it was nothing that would keep them out of the game."

The new mix will not only be used to bring the softball infield safer play, but Philips also said that it will help to drain the softball field. It would make it easier to drain after rain and bad weather occurred, which will allow more playing. Even though many games are not cancelled because of the weather it would still help the drainage and the process of drying the field.

"I do climate control on the field and we tarp our field," Richmond said. "[The new dirt] will probably help the process of it drying out, but when we have a game to play the next day, I have to insure that we can play on it so we will always tarp it.

Whether or not the new surface will help speed up the process of infield drying is something that has to wait until the season begins to see if it works. The renovation is bringing excitement not only because of the new found safety that the players and their opponents will receive but also the help of the infield play. It will allow players to once again predict where the ball will bounce off the dirt, too, said Richmond. The new mixture has already been placed on the field, but it still has to settle.

"It's just going to take some time for [the new dirt] it to settle in over the winter," Richmond said. "But it should really enhance the ground-ball plays in the infield."