By james art On Saturday, as the Midland University Warriors baseball team prepared for its final games of the year, head coach Shay Bennett called the players to the infield semicircle at Moller Field for an announcement.
The players were soon joined by Fremont Area Community Foundation Executive Director Melissa Dyers and FACF Board President Jennifer Bixby, who was holding a large novelty check.
Earlier this month, FACF announced the ballpark would receive a $7,500 grant for improvements to the concourses and seat railings, even though the Foundation knew Moller Field needed more work, especially the infield.
Therefore, in addition to the $7,500 grant written by the Fremont Area Sports Coalition, the FACF board decided to triple that initial funding by providing an additional $15,000 for infield renovations.
When Bixby turned the big check around for the players to see, the total was $22,500.
Members of the Midland University baseball team and head coach Shay Bennett, right, pose with Fremont Area Community Foundation Board President Jennifer Bixby and FACF Executive Director Melissa Dyers holding a check after being presented with a grant check for $22,500.
DAVID GOLBITZ, FREMONT TRIBUNE
“The Community Foundation is excited to be able to provide grant funding in many different ways throughout our grant area, the greater Fremont area, but it’s especially fun when you can provide grant funding for a project that has the impact of this ” said Dyers. “So today we just surprised the players of the Midland University baseball team with an additional $15,000 grant that we knew was needed for infield improvements.”
Moller Field is home not only to Midland’s baseball team, which plays about 20 home games a year, but also to the independent Fremont Moo summer league team, which plays about 35 home games from late May to early August.
“This field has a lot of use,” Dyers said. “The infield was in tough shape. It really wasn’t improved significantly by the 2019 flood, so it was really a safety issue for the players on both teams.”
Learning of the state of the field “inspired” the Grants Committee and the FACF Board of Directors to authorize an additional grant for the fourth quarter in addition to the grant for the third quarter.
“Helping out with these improvements on the field, I think it shows that there’s a lot of people that care about these guys and there’s a lot of people that support them,” Midland head coach Shea Bennett said. “But helping with those field things that we’ve needed help with for a while is going to be a huge day-to-day job, being out here on the field every day with the amount of guys that we have, with all the traffic that we have … that it will help a lot. It will go a long way.”
Darius Blasingane is a Midland graduate student and pitcher for the Warriors. He said the team feels a sense of pride and gratitude to the community for its investment in the field.
“We have people here who are willing to take time out of their day, take time out of their busy schedules and yet want to support us in any way, shape or fashion,” Blasingane said. “And it just gives us a little more incentive to want to come here and play for the city of Fremont and the surrounding areas. I mean, because it’s all we’ve got, and we love everybody here, and we just want to be able to perform at our best.”
Blasingane earned a master’s degree – his second – in sports administration and leadership.
He would like to become a baseball coach or work his way up to athletic director at a school. Anything to stay close to the game.
“Even if I’m not playing, I think being in the game will keep me going,” he said. “I’ve been playing since I was 4 years old, so to be without baseball — I’m 26 now — to be without baseball is going to be very difficult.”
Moller Field has already seen dugout improvements, and railings will be installed soon. Dyers said by next spring, the new yard will be ready to go when it’s game time again.