As senior third baseman Ronni Howard corralled a bouncing ground ball off the bat of Iona junior left fielder Alivia Litchner, she fired to senior first baseman Maddie Gore, finishing off a turbulent regular season at the Softball Park at Gartland Athletic Field with a 2-1 win to clinch their second consecutive MAAC regular season championship.
The softball teams’ work was done; they earned the right to host the 2025 MAAC Softball Championship, set to begin five days later on May 6. For the Marist grounds crew, their most hectic week was only beginning.
“The uncertainty is no longer there, and we know what we have to do,” said Darren McCormack, associate athletics director for facilities and operations, after Marist secured home-field advantage for the tournament.
Under perfect conditions, hosting the MAAC Softball Championship at Marist is a “heavy lift,” according to McCormack. There is little infrastructure at Gartland Field: one set of bleachers lines the third base side of the field, a makeshift wooden press box for announcers, sports information directors (SIDs) and writers to sit directly behind home plate and the camera used to show balls in play is stationed well above the field on an uneven hill below Lavelle Hall.
And just beyond the left field wall? Marist’s track and turf field project at North Field remained under construction throughout the tournament, creating an eyesore for the ESPN+ broadcast and a barrage of loud bangs and noises of heavy machinery during each game.
On top of the preexisting circumstances Marist had to deal with, one glance at the week’s forecast spelled disaster for the grounds crew. A full day of rain on Tuesday immediately washed away the entire slate of games to open the tournament.
“The clay itself on Tuesday the sixth was in great condition and really didn’t need extensive work on it,” said McCormack. “It was the outfield; it was standing water at this point.”
The Red Foxes opened their season away from home at West Point due to renovations on the outfield earlier in the spring. Left field had long been sloped towards the warning track, creating a dangerously uneven outfield with dips and bumps. Marist expected it to be a quick fix, but it quickly turned disastrous.
“No one knew how bad it was going to be until we really got into it. The thinking was that they would have to dig down maybe only a foot or two in some areas,” said McCormack. When the band-aid was ripped off, so to speak, and you really got a good look at it, it became more apparent how much more they had to remove.”
The cause of the uneven playing surface was a hodgepodge of trash, tires, engine block parts, bed frames, tree stumps and miscellaneous garbage that filled the underbelly of left field. After some 20 feet of digging, Clark Construction, Marist’s contractor, could finally begin rebuilding the field.
Marist returned to action on its home field on April 22. However, issues arose in the tournament as the field took on an immense amount of rainfall.
“We saw how much water the field took on the first couple days, and we knew if it rained like that again, we would be in a lot of trouble,” said Harrison Baker, associate athletics director and director of external affairs.
“We didn’t have the historical knowledge of how [the outfield] would handle,” added McCormack.
The MAAC crammed in eight games on Wednesday and Thursday, effectively putting the tournament back on track. But, more inclement weather loomed on Friday, forcing an impromptu relocation of the tournament.
“I think everyone was on board that the field wouldn’t be ready for Saturday to play three games,” said McCormack.
Instead, Saturday’s games were moved to Iona’s turf softball field, with Marist still “hosting” the tournament. They operated it like a regular gameday; Marist SIDs handled public address announcing, the scoreboard, live statistics and played each batter’s walk-up songs.
“They just basically gave us their field, their scoreboard and they said, ‘have at it,’” Baker said.
Meanwhile, a team led by head of athletic operations Randy Strickland was working on getting the field in playing shape for a potential championship game on Sunday – they needed to give the MAAC an answer by noon on Saturday.
The crew of athletic administrators, SIDs, multimedia staff and some students pulled the tarp at 7 a.m. on Saturday and immediately got to work. Some left to work the games at Iona, while 12 or so stayed behind and drained the outfield and prepared the infield dirt.
The group paused for lunch around noon, watched Marist’s walk-off semifinal win over Rider then confirmed with the MAAC that the field would be ready to host the championship on Sunday. They put their finishing touches on the field around 5 p.m., with Marist and Siena set to match up at 9 a.m. the following morning.
“It’s easy to miss a lot of people, but I can not thank everybody enough for doing whatever they could to get that field ready for Sunday,” said head coach Joe Ausanio. “The amount of rain that we got, the work that they put in, I’m just so thankful that we have such a great group of individuals that work so hard here at Marist University.”
Back home on Sunday morning, the Red Foxes put together an unforgettable first inning in front of their home crowd. Senior designated player Maddie Pleasants blasted a grand slam to blow the game open, landing amongst the rubble of the track and field construction beyond the left field wall.
Marist tacked on another five runs before the frame ended, putting the game far out of reach for Siena; the Red Foxes ultimately won 10-2 in five innings.
“Knowing what that field looked like the day before… for them to do it at home meant a lot to all of us,” said Baker. “It’s hard to say exactly how you get all these games in, but when you’re sitting there Sunday and you’re done by 11, it’s like ‘Wow, it actually happened.’”
It was a fitting end to a whirlwind of a season at the Softball Park at Gartland Athletic Field; in a year headlined by field issues and chaotic schedule changes, the Red Foxes battled through it all, winning both the MAAC regular season and tournament championships on their home field.
Edited by Marley Pope
Photo by Marist Athletics
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