Marist Athletics and the Hudson Valley Renegades announced a partnership last month that allows the Marist baseball team to play their first eight home games at Heritage Financial Park in Wappingers Falls during March.
The move comes with MAAC conference play beginning earlier this season than in years past because of the additions of Merrimack and Sacred Heart to the conference. Usually, Marist does not host games until conference play begins at the end of March or the beginning of April. With the longer conference slate, the MAAC scheduled them to play at home as early as March 7.
On the surface, given that Marist usually plays their home games on campus at the McCann Baseball Field, conventionally they could host games earlier in the season without issue.
But it is not that simple.
A quick walk past the McCann Baseball Field during the rainy spring reveals relying on the playing surface in that timeframe could be difficult. After rain, a large puddle often forms in the first-base area of the infield, while the outfield turns into a soft, muddy slosh that drains slowly; not the ideal scenario for an extra month of home games earlier in the season.
“You’re talking about the first week of March having to play here…And for us to just kind of roll the dice and say ‘Hey, we’re going to play at McCann,’ would have been a little bit tough,” said Marist head coach Lance Ratchford.
Even during the latter parts of the season in April and May, it is not uncommon for the Red Foxes to face predicaments that necessitate moving games off-campus because McCann Field is unplayable. Just last season the team moved four of their April home games 35 minutes north to Bard College’s turf baseball field because McCann Field was not sufficiently drained and dried.
Playing at Heritage, a professional turf surface, offers the team several benefits. For starters, Marist Director of Athletics Tim Murray pointed out that staying off the field throughout March will be a relief for the university’s grounds people, as they will not have to work around the team’s practices and games to do pre-season prep work on the field.
The move gives the team stability and confidence, knowing that in those eight early season games, they will not have to worry about last-minute game relocations or postponements because of a playing surface that is not ready.
“It’s going to eliminate the last-minute calls [to other schools], ‘Okay, is your field ready? Let’s go to your field,’” said Murray. “It’s really going to change the early season.”
Beyond easier scheduling, the partnership also provides an opportunity for the Red Foxes to practice and train at a facility that grants more flexibility than what they have on campus. At Marist, the team is limited with space to practice if the weather is not cooperating.
They use the small two-batting cage turf room inside the McCann Center, the multipurpose turf field at Tenney Stadium and even the recreational basketball gym inside McCann to play catch—situating themselves around students playing basketball to throw.
Heritage offers them the opportunity to play and practice on a baseball field before the season if McCann Field is not playable, which Murray believes could even offer Marist a recruiting advantage compared to other schools in the Northeast.
“The hardest challenge that a Northeastern college baseball player has to deal with is we’d like to get outside as much as possible before you play the first game, but there’s no guarantee that it’s going to happen,” Ratchford said. “It not being their first time playing true, regular baseball outside is definitely the positive in this whole thing.”
From a player’s perspective, sophomore outfielder Lewis Rodriguez also believes in the advantages of playing at Heritage.
“The guys in the south have an advantage because they’re allowed to get out there earlier,” said Rodriguez. “Inside, we’re doing live at-bats but we don’t know what’s a hit, we don’t know what’s an out, we can’t see the trajectory of the ball. So, it’s going to be a big advantage.”
However, Heritage is only a solution for the first segment of the season. It is the home of the Hudson Valley Renegades, the High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, who open their season during the first week of April. At that point, Marist will return to play their home games on campus at McCann.
While playing at Heritage is a great opportunity, it also raises questions about the reliability of McCann Field as a Division I facility. Some schools in the Northeast have shifted to, or already have, turf baseball fields that allow for consistent use throughout the rainy spring.
Looking at the MAAC, five of the 13 schools have turf baseball fields, and Marist could be the next.
“I know that having turf gives you a ton of flexibility,” Murray said. “Ultimately the goal would be to replace both softball and baseball with turf.”
Part of what excites Murray about a turf baseball field goes beyond the benefits for the Division I program and facets of the Marist community, much like his enthusiasm for the new track and field facility currently in the building stages on the north end of campus.
Some of the reason that the field being placed in the center of the new track will be turf, he said, is because it gives the university’s many club and intramural sports programs opportunity to utilize the facility with little added wear and tear.
A turf baseball field would have a similar impact, allowing the club baseball team to use the field regularly in addition to other club and intramural sports utilizing the outfield area for their activities.
“The amount of people that can be on turf without significantly wearing it out is significantly more than natural grass,” said Murray.
“I think it’s needed,” Rodriguez said of Marist switching McCann Field to turf. “You get to see live at-bats quicker…when it rains, you don’t have to cancel games. So, I think that’d be a huge upgrade.”
However, there is no timeline for Marist to revamp the baseball and softball facilities, in large part because the university is pushing a lot of funding toward the new track and field facility.
“I wish it was tomorrow we had the funds to do that,” said Murray. “I think that’s something that we’re going to have to maybe lean on our alums [to fund baseball and softball turf].”
So, in the meantime, while McCann Field remains a standard dirt and natural grass surface and if everything goes smoothly this season, Murray said the plan is to partner with Heritage yearly to play early season home games, something Heritage and the Renegades are open to.
“I’d love to do this every year,” said Renegades Senior Director of Stadium Operations and Events, Tom Hubmaster. “I’ll even go as far as that I would love to be able to host the school for all of their games.”
Hosting Marist is far from Heritage’s first foray into the college baseball world. Back when it was named Dutchess Stadium, Heritage hosted the MAAC baseball tournament 13 times from 1998 to 2016. More recently, it hosted the NEC baseball tournament each of the previous two seasons.
These games will not be the first time Heritage has partnered directly with Marist. From 2006 to 2018, Marist played Army annually at the ballpark in the Hudson Valley Baseball Classic, an event that Murray, Hubmaster and Army Head Coach (and former Marist Head Coach) Chris Tracz are all open to bringing back in future seasons.
Hubmaster, who has been with the Renegades for 26 years, takes pride in Heritage being the center of what he calls the “baseball hotbed” that is the Hudson Valley and is constantly looking for opportunities to host different teams and events. He mentioned SUNY New Paltz, John Jay College, Mount Saint Mary and various local high schools as area teams that have either played games at Heritage or have been in contact about holding future games at the site.
“It’s just good for the community, Marist is a mainstay in the community,” Hubmaster said. “It’s just a natural partnership…We should be here to promote each other.”
The Red Foxes will be at Heritage for their MAAC-opening series against Merrimack from March 7-9, a series against Niagara from March 14-16 and standalone non-conference games against FDU and Yale on March 19 and March 26, respectively. They will have access to the visitors’ clubhouse throughout their time at the stadium.
There is no charge for anyone looking to attend the games.
Edited by Michael Burns and Marley Pope
Graphic by Quinn DiFiore; Photos from the Hudson Valley Renegades and Marist Athletics
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