All of the grass is being replaced at John Smith Baseball Field on the Sacramento State campus -- with more grass. But, the school says the new field will use less water.
Crews have scraped off nearly 78,000 square feet of old turf into a pile and taken it by truck to be turned into compost.
In its place will be a layer of dirt and sand and then grass called Bandera Bermuda.
Gary Power is supervising the project for Dominguez Landscape. He says replacement turf will conserve up to 25-percent of the water previously used.
"It's worm castings that holds five times its weight in water. It doesn't let the water go unless the root zone and the roots start to draw the water out of the material."
Head Baseball Coach Reggie Christianson says the turf hadn't been improved in 60 years.
"It had a lot of rolling, didn't drain very well. And, the infield actually sat higher than the outfield, so there actually was a dropoff going from the infield to the outfield, which made it unsafe." "The third-baseman going back to catch a pop up. It was a good -probably foot-and-a-half- dropoff. Certainly not ideal."
About half-a-mile of sprinkler pipe will also be installed.
Sac State allocated $250,000 for the project. Christianson says he must raise about $40,000 to finish the job, which he hopes will be by the end of June.
He says he also plans to raise $200,000 to install lights by September.
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