After many months of campus construction, Eastern is starting off the 2025 school year with a new baseball field. Since the team’s founding in 1961, Eastern’s baseball team has primarily played on a slippery grass field, requiring frequent maintenance and often causing preventable injuries to players. With the construction finally finished, players will start their season on rubber turf, which should positively impact players’ performance and safety. Standing on even turf will help players stand more comfortably for hours at a time during games. “Field renovations were needed for our baseball field to accommodate the growing baseball program. Currently, the program operates two full rosters with a developmental squad and a varsity program (88 Student Athletes). The original field, despite continued maintenance, became unplayable and a safety hazard for our players” Eastern President Ronald Matthews said.
This will hopefully improve players’ recovery time after each game. In addition, the new field will have positive implications for game execution by providing a more even platform where balls can bounce higher and more predictably, making the game smoother and fairer for both teams. While this new development poses many benefits to Eastern Eagles, it did not come without a price, paid by last year’s players. Initially, the project was intended to be completed by the end of the last fall semester. That being said, the construction was met with some unexpected delays, pushing the date of the project competition into the summer months. Former Athletic Director Eric McNelly comments on these delays as having a significant impact on the team’s season.
“The biggest one, honestly, that shut us down for a little more than a month, was that there was an old sewage line that runs under that field. Once we discovered it, we had to replace it. So we had to replace quite a bit of a sewer line for the county”, McNelly said. As a result of this delay, players were forced to spend most of their season off-campus. “We practiced on the field hockey field a lot, and we also went off-campus to a field in Norristown. We played all of our games away, so it was a lot of bus travel, which was a pain. Not to make excuses but we definitely felt the fatigue of long bus rides before every game” Luca Marinucci, a former student and current team coach, said.
Not having a home field was more than just a practical decision. Last season, the baseball team spent most of the season without the experience of playing games on their own home field. “Sometimes you need to come home and play a game at your field to reset things and to feel the vibes of campus. A lot of students come out to our games, so to not have a true home game was difficult for us” Marinucci said. “It really hurt to hear that I wasn’t going to have a home field, and my friends on campus wouldn’t be able to come watch me play,” a recently graduated team member, Brian Lang, said.
Current and graduated Eagles welcome this long-awaited new development as a step in the right direction. “This field isn’t just about athletics—it reflects the strength and momentum of Eastern University as a whole. Along with projects like Templeton Hall, it shows how our leadership is expanding and enhancing campus while many institutions face uncertainty” current athletic director Brian Bingaman, said. These changes are projected to have a significant impact on the future development of the team. “The improvements impact us in a lot of ways. First, they give us the ability to support both our Varsity and Developmental squads. With the new turf, we won’t lose practices to weather and maintenance is minimized. It also strengthens our recruiting efforts and helps us continue attracting talent at a high level” Bingaman said.
These changes are only a small part of the expansion and growth of Eastern’s athletic department. “As president, I express deep gratitude for the funding and completion of this project. One of our strategies for growing our on-campus population and engagement is to expand our athletics program and to improve and develop our athletic facilities. The baseball field looks great and we look forward to the vitality and enjoyment it will provide for our students, families, and guests” Mathews said. Due to the support of coaches, construction workers, and Eastern staff and administrators, Eastern’s baseball team is preparing to confidently tackle this upcoming season with new turf and a home field.