Baseball travels to Petersburg for 2005 home games

Outfielder Trai Harris found out the news a few weeks before VCU officials made it public Nov. 10.

Head coach Paul Keyes gathered his players after practice to tell them that their 32 home games would be moved from the Diamond a few lights up Broad Street to the Petersburg Sports Complex nearly 40 miles down I-95 south.

No big deal.

Word of the switch had buzzed since early in the fall. But by Keyes treating the situation as more of an afterthought than an issue, Harris said the players didn’t want to make much of it either.

Still, the sophomore said, “I was kind of shocked. I had heard that the Diamond was in bad shape, but I didn’t know it was that bad.”

Plans for renovating the Diamond had been in the works since Sept. 2003, according to VCU athletic director Richard Sander.

“We were pretty sure we were going to get knocked out,” he said.

Problems with the Diamond’s irrigation and drainage systems popped up all over the field at the end of the Braves season in late August through early September.

The Braves were forced to play 12 of their scheduled home games in August away from the Diamond, and VCU had to scramble to find a place to practice and eventually a place to play before the team’s Feb. 12 season opener against St. Joseph’s.

VCU officials considered several spots before chosing Petersburg. How the travel would affect the player’s well-being and their grades were both concerns.

To take some of the pressure off his players, Keyes said the team won’t practice on Mondays and Wednesdays. Instead, they’ll use those days to “load up on classes.”

Most of the team’s games will be on weekends with seven games scheduled on Tuesdays.

The conflict comes with four midweek games set for the Wednesdays that players will have blocked off for classes.

Junior pitcher Marcus Davis said all the team can do is adjust.

“I think as long as we have a field to play on, we can’t be upset,” said Davis, who won his first game as a Ram at the Diamond, throwing 5.1 innings in a 14-2 win over Wagner. “Of course we want to play at the Diamond, but we aren’t. So there’s no need to dwell on it. We just have to take it as a positive and go out and win games.”

None of the possible alternatives were closer, said Sander, and coach Keyes ruled out area high school fields because they didn’t have the facilities necessary to accommodate a Division I team.

“That’s more for when you’re in a pinch for a game or two but not for a whole season,” Keyes said.

This situation was more of a vise grip considering the Rams won’t be able to move back to the Diamond until the 2006 season.

They chose the Petersburg Sports Complex-home of the Petersburg Generals of the Coastal Plains League, where many college players play summer ball-and both Keyes and Sander stressed that the switch might draw some attention from local media in Petersburg and fans in the area that follow the CPL.

“I hope it will,” said Davis.

Even with ties to the R-Braves, the Rams haven’t drawn well at the Diamond. Davis won that game over Wagner with 116 people in the stands, which seat 12,134.

The 8,145 fans that came to the Diamond for VCU’s 33 home games last season were the most in the past four years. Despite winning at least 20 home games in each of those years, the average attendance has hovered around 200 fans.

“It’s college baseball,” Sander said. “You can go to any school in the country unless you’re in on of the big Sun Belt schools and that’s what you’re going to get. It’s a shame that the students don’t get out.”

After a year at the Diamond, Harris is used to playing without a lot of fans, and he said whether or not they show up in Petersburg won’t affect how he plays.

“We can’t rely on the fans to get us up for games. We’ve got to rely on our teammates and coaches.”

The dimensions of the ballpark in Petersburg-320 feet down the foul lines and 375 feet to center field-has Harris excited. He hit .271 his freshman year with 8 RBI, 13 runs scored and no home runs. But he’s thinking that could change by playing on the new field.

“I keep hearing the field is smaller than the Diamond,” he said. “We’ve just got to change the game plan because at the Diamond you try to hit home runs and it will humble you. This year we could see some big increases in our numbers offensively.”