Fri, Jul 18 2008
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Published May 12, 2008 01:35 am - As far as Steve Urchek was concerned, it was a no-brainer... just the kind of decision the affable Pymatuning Valley coach relishes. Baseball Insider: Minor-league park a major deal for PV Lakers will play sectional game at Eastwood Field today Star Beacon As far as Steve Urchek was concerned, it was a no-brainer... just the kind of decision the affable Pymatuning Valley coach relishes.
At the draw for the Harding Division III sectional-district tournament, coaches were told before the seeding began that if a team was willing to give up a home game, it could play a sectional game at Eastwood Field in Niles, home of the Mahoney Valley Scrappers. The Scrappers are a Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians and their 8-year-old home, Eastwood Field, seats more than 6,000 spectators. So Urchek jumped at the chance to have his fourth-seeded Lakers host ninth-seeded Niles McKinley in a sectional semifinal today at 5 p.m. “This is a great opportunity for the kids,” Urchek said. “It’s a chance to play at a first-class facility.” Urchek, whose squad played four exhibition games at Eastern Kentucky University on March 24-28 in Richmond, Ky. then later played a doubleheader at his alma mater, Kent State University (where he earned a letter for the Golden Flash baseball team in 1988) and its home field, Schoonover Stadium, believes his Lakers, who will carry a 14-11 record into today’s game, will enjoy big-league treatment at the minor-league facility. “We get to take BP in their cages and see what the routine is like at that level,” he said. “They’ve got it all mapped out in terms of what time each team is on the field, taking BP, etc. “It’s just a great opportunity for all the kids and I thought it was worth it for us to give up a home game to be able to play at a facility like Eastwood Field.” Built in 1999, Eastwood Field will seem spacious to both PV and Niles McKinley today, sporting dimensions of 335 feet to left field, 405 to center and 335 to right. Season of change While we’re on the subject of facilities, this has been a different kind of season at Edgewood and its home digs, Walter Higgins Field. For this is the first spring the late Mr. Higgins has not been around the ballpark. “It is different because once the weather broke, we’d always look up and see Mr. Higgins in the pressbox,” Warriors coach Steve Kray said. “He’d always come around a few times each season and it was great to see him whenever he did.” Mr. Higgins passed away on Monday, Feb. 4 at age 90. 
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