The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Palmer Field work heading for home
MIDDLETOWN — Palmer Field and the new Woodrow Wilson/Pat Kidney complex are well into their final phases of work. To borrow a baseball analogy, if the two were base runners, I’d say Palmer is rounding third and WWPK is halfway there.
Xavier played its final home game of the season Friday. The “Palmer Field” entryway arch illuminated against a pink sky at twilight was something to see. As the baseball-related renovations near completion, this is worth repeating — the vote to make it all happen was well cast, the bond money is being spent smartly, and anyone who’s put sweat into the job should feel good about their contributions.
For the game experience, one of the unfinished details at the ballpark is the railing alongside the raised viewing deck on the leftfield line. Until it’s installed — and that’s expected in the next week or so, said Bill Russo, the city’s director of public works —the deck is closed. Work on two new batting cages will be finished this week, and the park’s stone-and-brick courtyard will open as well, Russo said.
Meanwhile, the concession stand operated by Middletown American Legion’s Post 75 is expected to be open for business for the CIAC semifinal game scheduled for June 5. By the time the high school baseball state championship games roll around June 8-9, Post 75 will be cooking with new equipment and a lot of people will be happy.
DuraEdge, the red stone/soil composition in the infield and warning track, has absorbed water well and held up nicely against the strong rains Tuesday night. The product eliminates puddling, which eliminates maintenance and upkeep, Russo said.
“We’re pleased with how the product set up. The results have been favorable,” Russo said.
More than a dozen games have been played at Palmer this month, and once the state finals come and go, the summer season will bring in Post 75’s three levels of teams plus the Ahern Whalen League. Lots of baseball to come at a park that will please many people with its aestethics.
The football area of Palmer Field will get full attention once the baseball side is finished, though the brick-and-stone work is progressing.
COMPLEX NEARING COMPLETION
Mountain View, the Massachusetts company hired for the total facelift at Woodrow Wilson/Pat Kidney, is sticking to a completion date of June 30, Russo said.
Added Russo: “They’re comfortable that they’ll meet that date.”
You can sense the urgency Mountain View has brought to the site since its work began last summer. Gene Nocera, chair of the 21st Century Parks Committee, told me last fall that “time is money and they don’t want to sit around.”
Workers have been moving dirt on the softball side of Pat Kidney for weeks. The weather hasn’t cooperated much, but backstop and dugout fencing are up now and one foul pole is in (the field is planned to play to 270 feet). Trees have been put into the ground and grass is filling in on the slope that runs inside the perimeter separating the fields from the Woodrow Wilson Apartments.
DuraEdge will be used for both the softball and baseball infields and their warning tracks. The baseball diamond was finished last fall, minus outfield fencing and batting cages. The field is supposed to play to 350 feet at its deepest, and outfield fencing will be removable to allow for for an overlay field out of season to accommodate other sports.
Knowing April was so wet and cold, you may have noticed at the softball site a lack of water collecting amid all that dirt.
“We haven’t seen any standing water,” Russo said. “The engineers we talk to are confident that the drainage is working well at those fields.”
On the Wilson side of the facility, the LED light towers were turned on Friday night. It was evident that the state-of-the-art “focus lighting” lit up the facility but not Hunting Hill Avenue in front of Wilson Middle. Residents of the Wilson Apartments should be ecstatic.
The track will get its synthetic coating this week — you can tell because the bleachers, press box and fencing look like a Christo plastic wrap job. Spraying the track requires a dry stretch of weather so that the coating adheres to the asphalt, Russo said, and the forecast this week looks fairly good. Meanwhile, concrete has been poured and is curing in the area of six future tennis courts on Newtown Street.
To come: three asphalt basketball courts, a paved exercise loop encircling the complex, and a children’s play area near the entry point of the baseball field on Farm Hill Road. Once the site is fully finished, the city will turn its attention to the soccer fields on Country Club Road and Long Hill Road, Russo said. The upgrades from the 2015 parks bond eventually will yield paved lots, concession stands, restrooms and proper drainage. ⏩ Middletown High’s baseball team is 10-9 with one game left, but its record is already good enough to be in the Class L tournament. In the event more than 32 teams quality in Class L, qualifying games will be played Saturday, the day after the CIAC releases pairings. First-round games begin May 29.
⏩ The Shoreline Conference tournament will play out this week once seedings for the eight qualifiers are determined. The eight in the tournament are Haddam-Killingworth, Coginchaug, Old Saybrook, Cromwell, Portland, Old Lyme, Valley Regional and North Branford.
⏩ At 12-8, Middletown’s CCC South champion softball team will play in the Class LL tournament. The Blue Dragons finished the regular season on a three-game winning streak in which they outscored their opponents 34-7. They played well, too, in recent losses to South Windsor and Southington.
“Winning the South is an accomplishment when half your starting lineup is sophomores,” coach Sal Morello said. “I’m really proud of them from that point of view as well. I like the way we’re playing. We’re definitely a better than we were early on. It was a feeling-out process the first couple of weeks.”
Despite being a young team, Morello said he likes how his players get it. For example, even in a 10-run loss to E.O. Smith, Middletown left 12 runners on base and his players understood that with two or three hits in big spots, the outcome could have been drastically different.
“They understand,” he said. “A lot of girls play in the summer and they’re in tune to what’s going on. They have high softball IQs. They make the typical young-player mistakes you’d expect with five sophomors and four juniors in the lineup.”
Twelve wins for a young team that had to account for six departed seniors while facing a competitive schedule is pretty good. Just wait till 2019 and 2020.
⏩ Xavier (5-14) wraps up its season Monday at North Haven. It was a tough go for the Falcons, who had to play nine of their 10 on the road because of the renovations at Palmer Field. They lost a close one at Shelton and were beaten on a walk-off home run at Staples out of the game and couldn’t get untracked, and they struggled to score runs.
The Falcons’ 11 seniors were recognized on Friday night at Palmer: Matthew Bjorklund, Conor Cardi, AJ Kleczkowski, Dylan Albert, Liam Milewski, Ray Seward, Mike Callahan, Nick Borkowski, Scott Masse, Sean Lenehan and Tyrone Abrahams. The record will show that Bjorklund was the winning pitcher in a 6-5 come-from-behind victory over Branford on May 7 — Xavier’s lone win at Palmer.
⏩ Mercy (8-11) is to visit Amity on Monday for its final push for Class L tournament berth. Cromwell (10-9) and H-K (10-8) have qualified in Class M and Coginchaug (14-4) in Class S.
⏩ Coginchaug softball players Taylor McDermott and Carly Lane and Faith Mauri of H-K were named to the All Shoreline Conference first team. Cromwell’s Kaitlyn Sinder and Jenna Masiello, Coginchaug’s Alexandria Grenier and Isabel Milardo, and HK’s Ali Hanigan were named to the second team. Receiving honorable mention: Portland’s Abby Dillion, Cromwell’s Monica Dewey, East Hampton’s Allyson Tuxbury, Coginchaug’s Amalia DeMartino and H-K’s Olivia Whitehead.
⏩ Central Connecticut freshman Nick Piersall, who led Portland High to two state golf championships, finished 9 over par (rounds of 79-72-74) and in 68th place in the NCAA Men’s Golf Kissimmee Regional last week. Central finished 14th of 14 teams in the regional won by Florida.
⏩ Gov. Dannel P. Malloy plans to meet with lawmakers Wednesday to discuss how to address the federal sports betting ruling. According to reports, Malloy said the state needs to “do something” as “quickly as possible.” State lawmakers ran out of time to pass a sports betting bill in the last legislative session.
My view: Betting on sports is as American as (illegally) filling out an NCAA tournament bracket. In 2018, gambling is not the shadow activity it once was. With regulation and access to all, it makes sense to go forward with it. If states benefit even a smidge, all the better. One day, I’d like to walk into Main Street Market and find a betting window, where I would put down money on the Browns to win at least four games this season.
⏩ Of all the interesting and funny things the sports world can serve up in a week’s time, I thought Buck Showalter crossed over the third-base line for a pitching change as Xander Bogaerts rounded third on his home run trot was a great reverse stick-itto-him moment. We know Showalter doesn’t care for the Red Sox, so that moment will be preserved on YouTube.
⏩ I know a guy who woke up at dawn Saturday to watch the royal wedding —to find a sports angle, of course. Serena Williams and David Beckham were in attendance.
⏩ A few years ago, it felt like a good idea to include my son in my fantasy baseball league. You know, bonding and all that. What was I thinking? I’ve been a part of the Pacific Ghost League since 1995. I would win once in a while. Now I don’t win at all.