Hub 44’s indoor batting and pitching tunnels and two state-of-the-art turf Little League fields at Stephen Hand’s Path have greatly contributed here of late to a surge of interest in baseball. With that interest “going through the roof,” in Tim Garneau’s words, he and a dozen fellow committee members are pushing to have a four-row, three-section, 132-seat grandstand built on leveled ground behind home plate at East Hampton High School’s varsity field in time for the spring season.
Garneau, a member of the East Hampton Town Trustees and a volunteer with a number of civic groups, said the project is estimated to cost $400,000 all told. It is to include a 40-to-45-foot-high professional-grade tension netting backstop like those at Stephen Hand’s Path, a brick walkway between the grandstand and the backstop that would accommodate wheelchairs and folding lawn chairs, and renovated dugouts.
“People were always complaining about the sight lines,” he said Friday. “And the steep incline that’s behind home plate presents a safety issue. A fan did fall there a couple of years ago. . . . This project would vastly improve the sight lines, would improve safety, and would bring together all the fans who have been spreading themselves out in trying to see the games. ‘I didn’t see you — where were you?’ I’d say to a friend after a game. And he’d say, ‘I was in left field.’ ‘Oh?’ I’d say. ‘I was in right field.’ This grandstand would bring the community together.”
The molded plastic seats — and the walkway bricks — are up for naming, with solicited donations ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 per seat.
A Bonac Baseball Bash to benefit the grandstand netting backstop and dugout renovation project is to be held next Thursday at the Stephen Talkhouse nightclub in Amagansett starting at 7 p.m. Josh Brussell’s band will play from 7:30 to 9. Twenty-dollar donations to the Bonac Booster Club have been suggested. While the project is under the Booster Club’s aegis, the East Hampton School District will put it out to bid and will oversee it.
Besides Garneau, the committee’s roster comprises Trevor Darrell, Mike Ruddy, Courtney Garneau, Chris Carney, John Grisch, Asa Gosman, Dave Rutkowski, Jack Miles, Meryl Katz, Richard Shilowich, Vinny Alversa, and Henry Meyer, the latter two East Hampton’s baseball coaches.
“Baseball is building in our community,” the committee’s mission statement begins. “Little League has state-of-the-art ball fields. All-Star team participation and travel teams are expanding. We are building up the pipeline so that more of our student-athletes can continue on to college programs. These proposed upgrades to the East Hampton varsity ball field will help elevate the experience for our children and for the community as a whole.”
More on Travel Teams
In recent weeks, evidence that enthusiasm for baseball here is on the rise could be found in the fact that three traveling squads — Mr. Alversa’s junior varsity team, Scott Abran and Mr. Grisch’s 11-and-under team, and Asa Gosman’s 9-U team — won Elite tournaments contested at the Moriches Athletic Complex.
On the way to their tournament win, the 11-Us defeated Riverhead 12-2, the Three Village Patriots 13-0, the East End Baseball Academy 9-1, and, in the final, the Middle Country Mustangs 14-5, a game in which Colin Grisch and Ryan Balnis each drove in five runs. Scott Abran batted .720 during the course of the tourney. Grisch in nine innings of pitching spread out over three games gave up no runs, two hits, and struck out 17.
Besides Grisch, Balnis, and Abran, others on the 11-U team are Owen Diamond, A.J. Gosman, Griffin Page, Jackson Cook, Riley Johnson, Dylan Johnson, Audrey Verdugo, and Chase Chmielewski.
Asa Gosman said his 9-U team “beat a tough Riverhead team in the final. Connor Cashin pitched perfectly during the first four innings, but gave up two runs in the fifth, at which point I brought in J.B. Zigler. Jace Birdsall and Henry Rozzi had big r.b.i.s.”
Besides the above-named, the 9-U team’s roster comprises Henry Gregor, Frank Sokolowski, Robbie Posillico, Jax Posillico, Cooper Meehan, Hudson Thomas, Henry Sullivan, Colin Stone, and Enzo Mazzeo.