Large stacks of masonry blocks occupy the space where the home dugout stood and the footprint of a new building is taking shape near what was once home plate.
For Lexington baseball coach Kevin Morrow, the cost of progress is a season-long road trip.
The same goes for Hillsdale skipper Jason Snow.
Both Lexington and Hillsdale are in the midst of building new schools adjacent to their existing structures. In both instances, the baseball field was a casualty of expansion, leaving both teams homeless for the 2021 season.
“Probably 80 percent of our games are going to be on the road,” said Morrow, whose Minutemen opened the season Saturday at Galion. “It’s going to be challenging.”
Lexington will share Mansfield Christian’s home field, but the Minutemen will only play a handful of Ohio Cardinal Conference games at the Logan Road complex. Almost all weekend non-conference games will be on the road.
“We’re thankful we were able to work out an agreement with Mansfield Christian,” Morrow said. “Our junior varsity team will be using Mansfield Christian’s field more than us.”
Like Lexington, Hillsdale will spend most of the season on the road as construction of the new pre-K through 12 campus continues. The Falcons will play their home games at PNC Fields in Wooster.
“We’ve scheduled most of our weekend games on the road,” said Snow, whose Falcons won their opener at South Central on Saturday. “We’ll play our Wayne County League home games and a few non-conference junior varsity games in Wooster.
“We’re just glad to be playing.”
There was some speculation that Hillsdale would play some home games late in the season at Ashland University’s Donges Field. The logistics have proven difficult, however, as AU’s regular season runs through mid-May.
“The chances of them getting rained out and then having to reschedule, we just didn’t want to impact our league games that way,” Snow said. “If we got bumped, we would have no control.”
Hillsdale competes in the Wayne County Athletic League. All of the Falcons’ league opponents will have shorter bus rides to Hillsdale’s home games in Wooster than Hillsdale will.
“I’m sure the rest of the league isn’t disappointed we are playing our home games in Wooster,” Snow joked.
While nothing is set in stone, there is a possibility that both teams could be in their new homes by next spring.
“I’ve been out to the construction site and there’s dugouts and a backstop,” Morrow said. “The wheels are in motion.”
