No field of dreams: Trinity baseball team may play all away games
Trinity’s varsity baseball team might not have a home field this season.
Trinity School District was set to sign an agreement Thursday to play on Washington & Jefferson College’s baseball field, but the college notified Trinity athletic director Ricci Rich earlier this week it was backing out of the deal.
Rich did not offer an explanation for W&J’s decision to go back on the agreement, but he said the college has been a good neighbor and was “forced to back out of that agreement by outside parties.”
Trinity completed a five-year agreement at Consol Energy Park, home of the Washington Wild Things, at the conclusion of the 2015-16 baseball season.
The school district paid in excess of $65,000 to play 14 games at the field last season, according to director of fiscal services David Roussos – approximately $4,600 a game.
It was Rich’s understanding some high school teams were charged about $500 per game to play at Consol.
The agreement with W&J would have cost the district approximately 15 percent of what it cost to play at Consol Energy Park last season, Rich estimated.
If it doesn’t find a home field, Trinity might play all of its games away during the 2016-17 season.
“Financially, it didn’t make sense to go back to Consol, but we don’t have a home,” said Rich. “We’re looking for a place to play baseball games next year, but we’re facing the possibility of playing all away games.”
Trinity’s junior varsity and ninth-grade baseball teams play games on the Trinity South field, but Rich said the field is not adequate for varsity games – the field has no electricity or storage, the dugouts are small, the infield is inadequate and the outfield is uneven – and it would be difficult to split practice time and to schedule games for all of the teams.
Rich said he contacted Washington Park and McGuffey School District to see if Trinity could play on their fields, but was told it might not be possible.
“Obviously, playing all of our games away is not what we want to do. We worked on this (agreement) for six or seven months, and thought this was done,” said Rich. “But we’ll keep looking at all our options.”