For the past couple of years, the baseball players at Wilson have had to use a broken-down batting cage composed of bending poles and a ripped net. However, construction workers from Capitol Hardscapes started building the foundation for a new, much nicer batting cage at Fort Reno last Friday. The new cage is going to have sturdy poles, a durable net, and will also actually have a turf surface for players to stand on, which is the complete opposite of the dirt and grass surface of the old cage.

Capital City Little League paid for the construction of the cage, and the whole project will cost upward of $6,000. It was very generous of them to have the cage constructed at Fort Reno, where all of the Wilson players will have easy access to it. JV head coach David Thompson explained that in order to thank the league, the Wilson baseball program has, “had our coaches host clinics to help out a lot of their young players.”

During last year’s spring season, Wilson’s baseball players missed a significant amount of practice time because of poor weather conditions. The auxiliary gym was almost always occupied by other sports teams, so the only other place for them to practice was in the old batting cage at Fort Reno. However, the cage was almost never able to be used because it was either blown over, or the ground was too muddy to hit inside of it. “We weren’t able to practice much during inclement weather because our batting cage couldn’t withstand any wind or rain,” junior player Theo Shapinsky said.

Having a batting cage that can be used in inclement weather situations will definitely allow Wilson’s baseball teams to practice more this year. Even when it rains this spring, all of the players will still have the opportunity to work on their hitting. , “The new cage is going to be awesome. It will definitely help us get a lot more reps,” sophomore player Josh Lasser said.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DC DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION