‘We love the facility’: L-P baseball, softball teams practicing on new fields

Matt Glupczynski has been involved with the La Salle-Peru baseball program for decades.

Glupczynski played for the Cavaliers, served as an assistant coach for L-P and has been the head coach for the past 11 years.

During that time, the Cavs have never had their own field.

L-P has played its games at Washington Park and Veterans Park in Peru and Dickinson Field in Oglesby, which are all city-owned fields.

That’s changed this season.

L-P built new baseball and softball fields as part of the $9.5 million final stage of construction of the school’s athletic complex on Chartres Street in La Salle.

“I absolutely love it,” Glupczynski said. “Being an alumnus of L-P, playing in the program, a lot of my buddies who I grew up with and graduated with played in the program, coming back and being a coach and all the players I coached through the years, there’s a lot of emotion there not only for myself but for all of them. It’s long overdue [to have our own field]. We’re very, very excited to be able to go out there day in and day out and call it our home.

“Coaching this team this year, you can just see the excitement in their eyes and the way that the kids talk about the new field and being able to call it their home and defending their home each game. The energy level is really high among our guys. We love the facility.”

The softball team also its getting its own home after playing for over a decade at Veterans Park in Peru.

“It’s really nice to have something that’s ours,” said L-P softball coach Randy Huebbe, whose team has had a handful of practices on the new field. “We were out there two or three times already. It’s super nice. The girls were super excited when we got out there.”

Glupczynski said the new baseball field is top notch.

“The playing surface is awesome,” Glupczynski said. “We have an in-ground irrigation system with good drainage to be able to maintain it. The hitter’s eye is great. Everything about it is good. We have two tunnels out there to hit. Stadium wall. Great seating. The environment is going to be electric with the two softball fields, as well. The PA booth is enormous.”

The Cavs have had two practices on the field.

“Our maintenance guys have just been starting cutting the grass, things of that nature,” Glupczynski said. “They’ve been able to trim it up and cut it, but I don’t think they’ve been able to roll it yet, and even with that, it’s smooth. You can run a marble across it and it would go straight. So far, ground balls, line drives to the outfield, the surface is playing very well. We’re excited to be able to play our first game on it.”

Huebbe said the softball surface is excellent, as well.

“The field is a little soft because the clay has to settle a little bit, but it’s really nice. It plays well,” Huebbe said. “What I did notice about it, which is really good, is it was windy at my house and it was windy at the school, but it was not windy there, so there must some good wind blockage up there. It was very nice to go somewhere where it wasn’t blowing like it was out at Vets.”

The softball team will play its first game on the field at 4:30 p.m. Monday against Kewanee, while the baseball team has its home opener at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against Alleman.