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Town crews lay new sod on baseball field at Robb’s Centennial Complex

The baseball field at the Robb’s Centennial Complex, known as Robb 3, is getting a facelift.

Town crews have been working to eliminate a “lip” that caused the dirt infield to be about 2.54 centimetres lower that the grass outfield.

“It caused some interesting plays on the field and was starting to become a safety factor for the players,” Corey Crocker, facilities co-ordinator for the Town of Amherst, said recently.

To eliminate the lip, the crews used tractors that had buckets and blades attached to them to remove some of the old sod and level the field so the new sod placed in the outfield would be on the same plane as the dirt infield.

“That required us to remove material from some areas and add material to other areas,” Crocker said.

Installing the new sod, supplied by Amherst Sod Ltd., was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.

First crews had to delineate the arc around the bases. This was done by tying one end of a long string to a post on the backstop and the other end to a stick that was used to mark where the infield and outfield met. The mark in the earth was then painted to ensure the crew knew the correct spot. 

Then the dirt exposed in the outfield by the removal of the old sod was raked and fertilizer was added before the new sod was applied by hand. The crew often cut pieces to fill the odd shaped spaces created in making the semi-circle that formed the arc. 

“We’re putting down about 6,000 square feet of new sod,” Crocker said.

“The crew is doing a great job,” he added. “When we’re done, we’ll have an excellent, safe field for people to play on.”