Blue Wahoos Stadium Improvements Continue With New Infield

Having just replaced turf at two major league stadiums, a team from River Region Sports Fields traveled to Pensacola for a makeover at Blue Wahoos Stadium. 
When finished less than a day later, their efforts left a refreshed new look for Admiral Fetterman Field with brand new grass laid in the infield and home plate foul territory. 
"I will have a good peace of mind," said Blue Wahoos head groundskeeper Dustin Hannah, a Crestview native who enters his second season in this role. "I will be a little more relaxed."
Hannah and assistant groundskeeper Wes Baldwin had worked constantly between the myriad of off-season community events held at Blue Wahoos Stadium to get the playing field ready for Opening Day. Following full baseball and college football seasons and a year-round schedule of events, it was time for new grass.
"We want it to feel like Opening Day every day," Blue Wahoos president Jonathan Griffith said of the decision to re-do the field. "If we are going to have this many events and still be Opening Day every day, then we need to spend the money for improvements like this."
The grass sod arrived in three transport trucks from Bent Oak Farm in Foley, Alabama, the same turf provider the Super Bowl uses each year for its field and the supplier of grass at numerous Major League ballparks across the nation.
River Region, based out of Millbrook, Alabama, installed the sod. The company's 10-man crew traveled from Houston, where they just finished installing new turf at Minute Maid Park, the home of the Houston Astros. A week earlier they were in Atlanta working on the field at the Atlanta Braves' new SunTrust Park.
The turf for Blue Wahoos Stadium was placed on 40 separate rolls, each weighing approximately 2,400 pounds.
"To do a field this size, fully rip it out and replace it is pretty nerve-racking, but these guys are so great at what they do. It's amazing," Hannah said. "With everything we had going on, the field didn't have a fighting chance to grow back otherwise."
The Wahoos intentionally purchased a high quality, rapid-setting turf known as "Lay and Play", making the field usable again almost immediately after installation and allowing their schedule of high school and college games next week to continue uninterrupted. The first teams to play on the new grass will be Escambia High School and Milton High School on Monday, March 18.
Following the high school match up, Blue Wahoos Stadium will host a three-day series of college games. On March 20, Wisconsin-Whitewater, an NCAA Division III powerhouse, will face the University of West Florida. The game will be the Argonauts' first appearance at Pensacola's bayfront stadium. Wisconsin-Whitewater will then play the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) twice on both Thursday and Friday.
The renovation was the first major work on the playing surface at Blue Wahoo Stadium since it opened in 2012. Griffith said the average lifespan for a baseball field is five to seven years. By that projection, the Blue Wahoos got the maximum use from their ballpark.
"That is just for a regular baseball field," he said. "But we're not just a regular baseball field, we are a community field. We have college football, flag football, everything we do for the community is great, but over time it wears down the field."
Over 200 sporting events were held at Blue Wahoos Stadium in 2018 including the Wahoos season, the Argos football season, Studer/55 NFL Flag Football, numerous Little League ceremonies and clinics, and multiple outside baseball tournaments. With the new turf, the ballpark will be ready for another busy year in 2019.