There were no speeches nor was there a formal ribbon cutting before the first game ever played on the new Ann Lees Road softball field got underway last Saturday.
The long-awaited event was a doubleheader between the Harvard under-12 girls team and the Westford Houles. Harvard’s girls lost both games, 14-7 and 10-6, but coach Mike Pierce said he was proud of the team’s performance, having had only two practices prior to the game. “For most of the team this was their first game since the spring of 2019,” he said.
Isabel Pierce winds up for a pitch at the inaugural softball game on the Ann Lee Road playing field, Sept. 20. (Photo by Jen Manell)
Whether the games would take place at all was in doubt as late as Wednesday. The field had not been maintained for more than a year. The infield was covered in weeds and the outfield needed to be mowed. “To be honest, I did not think we would be playing on the field this fall,” Pierce wrote to the Press.
But following the team’s Wednesday practice, parents stayed to hand-weed roughly a third of the infield, and Parks and Recreation Chair Bob O’Shea rallied several volunteers and Henry Dentino of the Department of Public Works to pull the remaining weeds and mow the outfield in time for Saturday’s game. Before the first pitch was thrown Saturday, Melissa Roy, softball coordinator for the Harvard Youth Baseball and Softball Association (HYBSA), and her husband, Steve, could be seen measuring and laying the baselines, and dusting basebags, home plate, and the pitcher’s mound.
The U12 Harvard girls are part of a four-team league hastily formed this fall by Harvard and Westford parents. Most of Harvard’s players are sixth- and seventh-graders, but the team also includes one player from fifth grade and another from eighth grade. Westford has assembled three teams, each named after its coach and including players from Littleton and Groton-Dunstable. The season will consist of five doubleheaders. Play is limited to 90 minutes or four innings per game.
Saturday’s game drew the unwelcome attention of the Board of Health at its Tuesday night meeting. Responding to reports that more than 50 parents, coaches, and players may have been present, members planned to remind the Harvard Athletic Association (HAA) of COVID-19-prevention rules of play, and they threatened to close the field on Ann Lees Road if the club does not comply. Gov. Charlie Baker lowered the limit on outdoor gatherings from 100 to 50 on Aug.11.
As for the field’s condition, Pierce says more work is needed. Its condition Saturday was only “fair,” he told the Press. Any movement in the unwatered infield raised a cloud of dust that made play difficult. “We could use foul poles in right and left field, Pierce added, and an outfield fence would keep softballs from rolling into the brush. The wood benches in the dugouts, which were moved from the Harvard Elementary School, need to be replaced. And the distance from home plate to center field is shorter than the distances to left and right field, a flaw that could become an issue for the Bromfield varsity girls team in the spring, Pierce said.
