Thursday, March 24, 2016

LJ construction: On schedule

By Ed Piper

A couple of parents have told me that the construction taking place in Edwards Stadium, they've been informed, is on schedule and possibly aimed for completion for use of the playing field in August 2016.

I don't have any official confirmation of that, but the McColl family is a pretty reliable source of information.

On the same note--of the upgrading of the La Jolla High athletic complex--the newly-renovated softball field is beautiful. The new surface is good, though Viking batters noted they have to make an adjustment in the batter's box in doing their footwork on artificial turf instead of the former dirt.

The entire field is now artificial surface, with the pitching circle and plate no longer natural. The baseball field at Muirlands Middle School had a similar upgrade last year.

One improvement that will have to be made on the softball field is the open-ended dugouts for both teams. Someone not knowing softball or forgetting safety considerations designed the new dugouts without fencing on each end. That means that a ball coming directly off the bat can come flying into a dugout and conk someone on the head.

What Coach Anthony Sarain and his staff have done temporarily is to lash up their mobile pitching and hitting backstop to block off the visitors dugout along the first base line. The home dugout is still open, requiring Viking players to sit down the bench a distance to avoid danger.

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