Baseball is just around the corner and the Town of Drumheller has been busy making sure it has the facilities to allow all ages to play.
Baseball has seen a resurgence interest in Drumheller. President of Drumheller Minor Baseball Association Lyle Caweizel tells the Mail this year about 135 kids are registered with 13 teams from t-ball to bantam.
Because this year they have a bantam team, they outgrew the local baseball facilities. The Town of Drumheller has been working on renovating Diamond 3 at Newcastle Diamonds. This will allow the older players to continue playing ball in the valley.
Town of Drumheller operations manager Kevin Blanchett said to accommodate bantam and midget baseball, they have moved the backstop and dugouts back about 30 feet and they moved the side fences and repositioned home plate.
“We probably spent about a month there,” said Blanchett, adding the bulk of the work was completed by town crews.
“This is a great addition for us, and hopefully it keeps us growing,” said Caweizel.
Drumheller Minor Baseball has been raising funds for a portable pitching mound and received a donation from the Newcastle Community Association.
“The portable mound is because we have other user groups like slo-pitch that use the diamond, we didn’t want to put in a permanent mound, because that limits the groups that could use it,” he said. “ A portable mound could go on and off the field, so when we are done, slo-pitch could go back on without any barriers.”
The bantams will play a the AA level. With the larger diamond, the team will be able to host tournaments this season and are even looking into hosting provincials.
