Pineville sportsplex gets artificial turf, LED lights, splash pad
Renovations on the Ward 9 Sportsplex baseball and softball fields at 3311 Donohue Ferry Road in Pineville is rounding the bases towards completion after 2 ½ years.
Work is being completed on coverings for batting cages and the family area along with new LED lighting. A new splash pad will also be installed. The biggest upgrade is the addition of 210 feet of artificial turf to the six ball fields. Four of the fields are already complete and games have resumed on those fields.
“We'll be able to accommodate everything from Wee Ball, which is four- and five-year-olds up to Dixie Boys baseball, which is 14 and 15-year-olds,” said facility manager Steve Rachal.
Most ball fields are now artificial turf which is much more forgiving than natural grass when it comes to rainy weather, especially in Louisiana said Rachal.
“With the tournament business and with our local leagues and stuff, we're just having so many rainouts and it was very hard for us to really to compete getting outside tournaments and stuff to come,” he said.
Most are going to towns that have ball fields with artificial turns because even if it rains, the tournaments will go on about 99 percent of the time, he said.
“Whenever you're sitting there spending $1,000 a week in on traveling, you basically want to be guaranteed that you're going to play that weekend. And it's very understandable,” said Rachal.
USSSA Tournaments for both baseball and softball are already lined up as are Dixie All-Star State Tournaments. Next year, he said they would be able to run a full schedule. He’s already had people call for the past year and a half trying to line things up.
But there is still a lot left to do to complete the Sportsplex, said Rachal.
A new 1 ½ mile walking trail with fitness stations will be installed. Many people are looking forward to that, said Rachal. Many people walk around the site for exercise already.
A new sign will be placed at the entrance and the soccer fields and lights will also be renovated.
The work has taken 2 ½ years because the original contractor out of Lafayette went bankrupt, said Rachal. So they had to start the bidding process over which took about 8 months since they had to go through all the legal channels again.
JAC Construction of South Louisiana is the general contractor “and they’ve done a wonderful job,” said Rachal.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Pineville sportsplex gets artificial turf, LED lights, splash pad
