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Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports HALTON TRANSMISSION "Connected to your Community" 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com 23 | Thursday, May 2, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com A baseball field fit for King's by Jon Kuiperij Beaver Sports Editor King's Christian Collegiate initially set out to improve the playing field for its two-time provincial champion boys' soccer team. It ended up hitting a grand slam for its baseball program as well. The separate high school in north Oakville is the new home to one of the unique multipurpose sports fields in the country, a $1.8-million privately-funded artificial turf facility designed for both soccer and baseball. Artificial turf soccer fields aren't much of a rarity anymore. In fact, all eight Catholic high schools in Halton -- including Loyola, Holy Trinity and St. Thomas Aquinas in Oakville -- have them. But an outdoor artificial turf baseball field? One exists at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, but King's athletic director Eric Bulthuis believes his school boasts the only one in Ontario. "There's another one we're aware of in the prairies. I think it's in Alberta," Bulthuis said. "It's a unique facility. The people we've had on it are just in love with it. They don't often get the opportunity to play baseball on a turf field, where the bounces are a little more true and the mounds are nicely taken care of." Other features of the baseball field are spacious 60-foot step-down dugouts, a large electronic scoreboard beyond the left field fence and brick around the base of the backstop. The field is located northeast of the school, tucked into a small space of land at the corner of Burnhamthorpe Road and Neyagawa Boulevard. Home plate is approximately 40 feet away from the school building. A tall fence in right field, 270 feet from home plate, protects Neyagawa, which is roughly 50 feet beyond the field. The limited space available for the baseball field, combined with it also being a soccer pitch, led to some quirks. The outfield wall, which is L-shaped in order to provide a square corner for the 100-foot-by-60 soccer field, juts out to 410 feet away from home in centre. The new baseball field at King's Christian Collegiate, shown during a tournament game Friday between King's and the Aldershot Athletics, is believed to be the only outdoor artificial turf baseball surface in Ontario. The $1.8-million facility will also be used as a soccer field.| photo by Jon Kuiperij -- Oakville Beaver Second and first base are located on the soccer playing surface. All bases are surrounded by rust-coloured turf, while the pitcher's mound and batter's boxes -- both located off the soccer surface -- are made of clay. "We wanted to put as much into this field as we could," Bulthuis said. "We also have a long-jump pit, batting cages and throwing pit for discus and shot put (all located down the right-hand side of the baseball diamond). And we would have liked to have a running track. But with the amount of room between Neyagawa, Burnhamthorpe and the school, we had to scrap a few things we couldn't fit in." Original plan was soccer/football field King's did not even have a baseball program when school officials first considered renovating the soccer field several years ago. The original plan was to build a field that would accommodate both soccer -- the Cavaliers have won two Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations single-A titles in the past five years -- and football, a sport King's does not field a team in. But Rob Scott, chairman of the school's board of directors, had some connections with the Ontario Terriers, an elite baseball program designed for youths seeking collegiate op- portunities in the U.S. and Canada. The Terriers expressed an interest in playing their home games at King's, and the idea for a combined baseball/soccer field was born. "(A new field) still would have been done," said Bulthuis, noting the school's pitch was in such deplorable condition that the Cavaliers couldn't even play games on it last season. "But having that connection with the Terriers pushed us over the top." Last May, the Terriers signed a long-term partnership agreement with King's to be- come the primary baseball tenant at the facility. Their first season on the new surface will begin in August. There is no shortage of interest from other parties in using the facility, either. Sharon Van Beilen, the school's rental co-ordinator and office assistant, said $240,000 in rental fees are already lined up for the field this year. If the school can eventually get approval from the Town of Oakville to add lights (zonsee Positive on p.24 King's Christian Collegiate baserunner Travis Wacker (right) slides safely into second while Aldershot Athletics second baseman Jordan Peacock fields the throw. Artificial turf, not dirt, surrounds the bases of the field because two bases are located on the soccer playing surface. | photo by Graham Paine -- Oakville Beaver -- @Halton_Photog