Play Ball!                      

LEO teams with the Athletic Department 
to help design a new Baseball/Softball Field.

One of the new projects this year is the site evaluation for a new complex located near the current baseball field at Goodman Campus. The idea is to create a venue where events could take place simultaneously, attracting larger crowds and producing an atmosphere that will draw more recruits and another championship.

The main idea LEO has been trying to incorporate with the Integrated Learning Experience (ILE) course is the examination of environmental concerns and impacts. The area of work is the present berm surrounding the baseball field and sloping land of the cornfield. Drainage from the hill and runoff from the parking lot into the cornfield have to be evaluated. The graphics (left) show a detailed look at the profile of the land. The decision for the placement of the field puts home plate right in the middle of the berm. In order to minimize costs during the cut and fill a portion of the land leveling process, home plate must be placed several feet into the hill, requiring a retaining wall for the hill of eight feet or so high from field level. This means water has to be diverted around the wall and dugouts out to the cornfield into a natural depression to prevent flooding at home plate. 

Three undergraduate students, using a brand new piece of equipment called a total station, began surveying from a benchmark located on a Friedensville Road bridge. Points were collected through the cornfield, the parking lot, the entire berm, and the proposed section of cornfield where the softball field will be. Maps like those shown (left) were produced, and volumes of cut and fill calculated. Two additional concerns were the movement of the cross-country track and the stone parking lot for Stabler Arena. The parking lot will someday be paved and the cross-country track keeps getting moved around. By placing the field parallel to the parking lot and keeping the same dimensions as the current field as requested by softball coach Fran Troyan, the proposed design will fit without having to move the track. 

Future considerations for the complex include a two-way press box for use by both teams and a batting cage setup for use by Lehigh athletics and the general public. The planning and considerations gone into the summer '99 project will be used in the succeeding fall '99 course in which students will actually design the wall, field, and drainage apparatus.