New batting cages, mini field to provide much-needed practice locations for local youth

By Reagan Hoverman

The River Falls Baseball Council has developed a new plan to continue giving back to the community by adding new facilities to an already state-of-the-art ballpark.

Since its official opening in June 2014, the First National Bank of River Falls Field hasn’t changed very much. The Council and other local supporters were meticulous in the designs to make it a nearly perfect ballpark.

However, in recent years it has become clear to both the Council and Josh Eidem, who is a Member-At-Large of the Council, that River Falls needs more space for baseball – especially at the youth level.

Because of that growing need for additional practice space, the Council has begun the process to expand facilities at the First National Bank of River Falls Field which includes new batting cages and a mini field that will help players of all ages with fielding and baserunning techniques. Eidem spoke about how the plan came about.

“We’re at the place where we’ve been established well enough now that it’s time to do what we can for the community, youth baseball, and for outside groups,” Eidem said. “We know we don’t have enough fields in River Falls. We have people calling (us) trying to find practice places and we have youth teams practicing in soccer fields on grass during the summer because there aren’t enough (fields).” The City of River Falls continues to be a desirable, ever-growing community as is displayed by the census numbers. Since the year 2000, more than 6,000 people have moved within the city limits of River Falls.

As the population continues to grow, more children are put into the school system and those kids want to play baseball at all levels. Except for the First National Bank of River Falls Field, baseball facilities in River Falls have been sluggish in their continued development and it has created a need for more practice space.

“We just don’t have enough fields (in River Falls),” Eidem said. “On a Tuesday night, you have X amount of games going on at X amount of fields and then you have teams that don’t have a game and they want to practice somewhere – there is nowhere to go because there just aren’t enough fields.” The scarcity of baseball facilities in River Falls has led to Eidem’s anecdote about youth programs practicing on soccer fields. As Eidem and the rest of the Council became aware of that issue, they began developing the plan that has already broken ground just south of the third baseline.

The new facilities will include multiple “tees and toss” areas for beginners and one larger batting cage suitable for players of all levels. The cages will be completely turfed and will simulate the real field.

Just a few feet east of the turfed cages will be the mini field which will include a back – stop, dirt infield, 60-foot bases and a small wall of billboards. Eidem spoke about the site plans and what people can expect and how it was designed.

“It’s a batting cage and a mini field that is just for ground balls – it’s really just a practice facility,” Eidem said. “The River Falls Baseball Council – we came up with that just by talking about it because we knew we needed another set of cages.”

New facilities come with a price tag. According to the press release, the cost for the total scope of the project is approximately $50,000. The mini field will be approximately $30,000 and the turfed cages will be approximately $20,000. Although the process is just getting going, the Council is looking for local sponsors to help finance the facility upgrades.

“We’re thinking multiple local sponsors will take parts of it,” Eidem said. “We’re just getting going on the sponsor side of things, so we don’t have any yet.” While sponsors will certainly help negate some of those costs, in-house labor is also helping offset some of the costs. When the First National Bank of River Falls Field was built back in 2013-2014, Eidem, RFHS base – ball coach Ryan Bishop and others literally helped build the ballpark by putting up siding and shingling on the facilities to help save money.

“That cost (of the new facility) is with us doing a bunch of the work,” Eidem said. “I was out here helping the guys from Total Ex – cavating to nail the boards together. Randy Feyereisen and Ryan Bishop will be putting in the ground sleeves for the cage poles – we will be doing a lot of the work ourselves. If we were just going to hire it all out, it would be almost twice the cost.” While new facilities are great for everyone in the community, Eidem and the Council have focused on helping the youth so that they can develop into the baseball or softball players they are meant to be. Eidem spoke about how money can influence how children develop as players and how this project will help level the playing field.

“It would give the youth teams and kids more opportunity,” Eidem said. “The dad that wants to throw backyard BP to his kid and he doesn’t have a cage, it levels the playing field. One of the dangers of any youth sport is that it starts to get driven by money and who has the money to put the cage in their backyard. We want to have as much free and accessible stuff to promote baseball in the community as we can.” According to Eidem, the Council will work diligently to have the batting cages and the mini field built by the end of this fall and have them fully operational by next summer. Businesses looking to support the program can contact the River Falls Baseball Council for sponsorship opportunities.

Ground has been broken just south of the First National Bank of River Falls Field where a large batting cage and mini field facility are scheduled to be built this fall. The total cost of the project is slated to be approximately $50,000. Photo by Reagan Hoverman