Touching the Bases With Nate Eastman: More Rain and Fieldwork

We have had some wet weather here in upstate New York to say the least as we turn a chapter in our season and head into July for the remainder of our season.

The Silversmiths have dropped their last 3 games bringing us 2 games from .500.  We lost to the Oneonta Outlaws last Wednesday, in an 10-8 slugfest in Sherrill, after only playing three innings the day before it was called due to the rain.

On Thursday we then played the Outlaws in Oneonta in the middle of a monsoon.  I was shocked that we were able to get all 9 innings in.  There were no complaints from players in the field as we were all very impressed with how well the field held water.  We ended up losing that game as we dropped another game 2-1.

On Sunday we were scheduled to play a home game against the Syracuse Junior Chiefs at 5 but we were all told to report to the field at 9 AM to maintenance our field.  Since our beloved Noyes Park is owned by the city of Sherrill, we are in charge of getting the field ready for our games.

When we arrived like usual we had a pond of water that ran between shortstop and third base.  We were all instructed to use paper cups to scoop water into a bucket and then dump the water in the street.   We also used a shop vacuum to remove other puddles from the field.  This might not sound like a lot of fun but it actually was good for team bonding as we spent close to 3 hours working on the field.

After we finished the field we had a couple hours to kill, then we came right back for pregame batting practice.  We lost the game 4-1 later that day as we had a couple tough breaks that didn’t go our way. Tonight we face the Syracuse SaltCats at Le Moyne College as we look to begin another win streak.