STACYVILLE, Maine — The Katahdin baseball team has enjoyed tremendous success on the diamond this spring, even if it hasn’t been on the Cougars home playing field.
Under the direction of second-year coach Tim Thoreson, the Cougars are off to an 8-0 start and have been dominant in their play thus far, outscoring the opposition 87-36. Katahdin is the top-ranked team in the Class D North standings as of Tuesday morning.
That feat is even more impressive considering the players have yet to set foot on their home field. Not only has the team not played a home game, it has not even been able to practice on a regulation-sized baseball field.
“We have been practicing on an old softball field,” coach Thoreson said. “All that is left is the old backstop out behind our baseball field.”
The Cougars hope to get on their field Wednesday, May 17, for a home game with Stearns.
Last summer, the district dug up all the old gravel infield that the team had played on for years and installed a new clay infield. Despite officials’ best efforts, the clay did not have a chance to fully set before the snow came, Thoreson explained.
The extremely wet spring has not helped the situation.
“We completely redid the infield last year, putting pallets of ‘Turface’ on the field to help absorb the spring rains,” said Superintendent Todd LeRoy. “Unfortunately, the field was built on top of wetlands and due to the excessive rain this year the entire area is saturated. The work done would have helped in any normal year, but once everything became saturated, there is little we can do until it dries out.”
“Due to the excessive amount of rain we have had this spring, the clay has not been able to fully dry out,” Thoreson added. “Our maintenance staff has been amazing at trying to come up with creative ways to get our field ready to play. Weather has just not been on our side. I don’t believe this has ever been a problem before.”
Practicing on the old softball field has been challenging, but rather than shying away from the challenge, the team has embraced it.
According to members of the team, the most difficult part about being unable to practice on the Cougars field was not being able to simulate game situations on a full-sized field. Instead, the team has focused on learning about situations and plays in a classroom and then practicing those situations on a shrunken field.
“We are unable to get a full outfield in the space that we have, but we are able to set our bases up at 90 feet so our infielders can practice on a quasi-full infield,” Thoreson said. “We aren’t alone in this problem. The weather has wreaked havoc on most of high school baseball in northern Maine this season.”
“We are doing everything we can to make sure our kids are playing their games,” added LeRoy. “It would be nice to be able to play home games, but it is more important we play the games than the location.”
