Baseball: Swinging for the Fence

For over a year, the future of America’s pastime at the University of Idaho has been up in the air.

But club president Drew Fagan has attempted to revitalize the baseball program.

Fagan, a senior and third-year college player, said he hopes the team’s first game of the season against Washington State next month will take place at the new baseball field at Mountain View Park.

“We’re in a tight scenario because the field had a lot of drainage issues in the past,” Fagan said. “We’re hoping to play Washington State on that field but if we can’t, we’ll probably be in Pullman on their turf field.”

“(It is) difficult because we’re going into their place as our home game,” Fagan said.

Club vice president Mason Dean said playing on turf has a different style of play that can be beneficial or cause difficulty.

“When your home field is on turf, you get pretty used to it,” Dean said. “But if your home field is artificial grass and you’re coming over to play a turf field, it’s definitely a big change for you.”

The club vice president said the team is waiting to receive word on where the game will take place. Once they receive the news, the team will practice for that scenario.

“It’ll depend on how we handle the situation,” Dean said. “We have some turf facilities here that we can practice those ground balls and we also have a grass field. But it really comes down to who were going to play to decide where we’re going to practice.”

Fagan said the new field at Mountain View Park will be run by the Moscow Parks and Recreation. Despite the city’s involvement in maintaining the facilities, Fagan said concerns have been raised regarding the field grass and if it will be ready by March.

“The grass is having a hard time taking off,” Fagan said. “It’s taking a little bit longer than the Parks and Recreation would have wanted to, but we’re pretty excited to play on that field.”

The baseball program has struggled to find a new home in recent years. The initial plan was to build a new ballpark at Guy Wicks Field, but Fagan said the field was used to build updated soccer facilities.

Fagan said the team is well-prepared for the spring and is competing without a non-playing coach. In addition, Fagan said the program has taken care of all the necessary financial work in order to play this season.

“It’s kind of hard to get a group of guys together,” Fagan said. “I’ve been doing everything from coaching, scheduling games and financing. But it isn’t too much hard work so it’s easy to take on as a single person.”

Fagan said the lack of promotion and players showing up was the main reason why the Vandals were unable to play a regular season last year.

“There was a lot of commitment issues,” Fagan said. “Michael Williams, the last club president, had a hard time getting everyone together.”

Dean said he first learned about the club baseball program last April.

“I went searching for this team all of last year,” Dean said. “They didn’t promote club baseball at all, so I couldn’t find them. But this year, we are promoting it and we’re going to get more freshmen and other guys to come play with us.”

Dean said he’s looking forward to play for a committed and revitalized Idaho team.

“I’m excited to play baseball this year,” Dean said. “Hopefully we can have a successful season and even make it to the NCBA World Series.”

The Vandals are part of the National Club Baseball Association and compete in the Pacific North Conference against regional opponents.

The Vandals first game is tentatively scheduled for March 5 against Washington State.

Luis Torres can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheLTFiles