Play Ball! Pacer Park set to open again

The pitcher’s mounds are set, the baselines drawn and the batter’s boxes await young ballplayers as Pacer Park opens once again.

The park was forced to move due to the construction of the Regina Bypass two years ago.

The new diamonds are located on Tower Road near The Greens on Gardiner neighbourhood in Regina.

During those two years, President of Baseball Regina Lorne Chow said their teams have had to use schoolyards to hold practices and games, which were not ideal.

“The school grounds are generally gravel and not grass infields,” Chow said. “Typically in our ball diamonds we have pitching mounds and school diamonds don’t have pitching mounds.”

The league also found an open space in Theresa Park and rented fence from a company to create a makeshift backstop for their rally cap league for children five to six years old.

The league’s other two ballparks, Lion’s Park and Columbus Park, would be near capacity due to the extra games taking place there.

Las week, the city announced nine of the 14 diamonds at Pacer Park would open on May. 7 — seven for baseball and two for Slo-pitch.

Chow said the extra space will not only help lessen the load on the other diamonds, but will also help the league’s growth.

“Over the last five year’s we’ve increased our player registration by over 25 per cent and with three fully operated ballparks it’s going to accommodate the growth of Baseball Regina.”

The league has teams in all age groups from as young as five to 18 years old. There are about 120 teams that operate in Baseball Regina leagues, including ones based outside of Regina in their southern provincial league.