Kendall Langley

The infield serves as the central stage for the majority of the action in a baseball game. It is where the necessary showdown between the pitcher and batter occurs. The infield also holds home plate, first, second and third base, as well as the pitcher’s mound.
The previous Rolla High School baseball infield received a facelift when it was carefully torn up in autumn. The diamond looks slightly different now, with new grass along the baselines from home plate to first base and third base to home plate. The pitcher’s mound remains erect and home plate is still surrounded by dirt.
Head baseball coach Kenneth Hohe shed light on the reason why renovations were made to the infield in November.
“The infield gets all the water from all the fields…it washes out spots on the infield, which creates puddles and then once those puddles start they just continue to grow over time because every time it rains, it sits there. So, we have to pull that water out and when you pull that water out, you pull some of the dirt [and] some of the mixture of the infield turf that we have,” said Hohe. “A lot of our standing water last year would stand in those first and third baselines. Now we don’t have that. Now we have grass so that water will drain better. The grass will soak up more moisture than all that stuff.”
Senior David Watkins spends quite a bit of time in the infield as he’s covered positions including second base, first base and pitcher. Watkins and other members of the team provide their time and energy to complete field work at the beginning of the season, in part due to the fact that the baseball field sits in a valley.
“Well, [at the] beginning of season, we always do field work, which includes pretty much redoing the bullpens. We pick all the weeds on the field every day. We rebuild them out and with clay. Last year, we dug out a french drain that we didn’t even know existed. And we restrung the cage. [We] fix some of the holes in the cages…Clean out the dugouts,” said Watkins.
Watkins is optimistic with how the change in baselines will affect the team’s play from now on.
“I think last year with the dirt baselines and there being a lip there, it affected a lot of balls down the line, like they go foul a lot. So I think it’s gonna help us make more outs if those balls stay in play instead of rolling.”