The Winthrop softball team hasn’t settled in at its new field just yet.

WINTHROP – The “Home Sweet Home” sign has not been put up yet, but the Winthrop softball team is slowly getting used to its new digs.

After playing on the side of a hill for many years, the Ramblers have a nice new spread out behind the new high school. Winthrop christened the field for the first time last week and got a second outing Thursday.

“The team is excited and where it’s placed is really nice,” said senior outfielder Hannah Salois. “Even though we played on the other field forever, it’s really worked out good.”

For the Ramblers, however, it still doesn’t quite feel like home.

“Not really yet,” said Salois. “It doesn’t feel like it’s our field. We’re definitely looking forward to playing a lot of games there.”

Of course, the weather hasn’t exactly helped matters. Prior to Thursday, the Ramblers had managed to get just one game on its home field and had practiced more times in the gym than on the new turf.

“It’s frustrating because people really put a lot of work into it, and we haven’t been able to use it much yet,” said Salois. “It’s kind of frustrating not to be able to get on the field.”

The field is still in the development stages as well. Dugouts and an outfield fence are planned for the venue but have not been added yet. There is an electronic scoreboard but the power hasn’t been hooked up yet.

“It’s been very disappointing in the sense we had hoped to have a field with dugouts and a fence,” said Winthrop co-coach Charlie Lincoln. “It’s a work in progress. It’s going to be very, very nice, but right now, it’s a work in progress.”

The new baseball field faces the same scenario. That field, around the corner from the softball diamond, is awaiting dugouts and sideline fences.

“We’ve got the money and the booster club is ready, and we have the people lined up to do (the dugouts),” said Jeff DeBlois, Winthrop athletic director. “It’s just a matter of getting the cement work done.”

DeBlois expects the dugouts to be done this year as well as sideline fences for the baseball field.

The outfield fences won’t be added until next year. All of the financing for these projects have come outside the school. So the money has to be found for additional projects.

“These things get done when the athletic director can find the money,” said DeBlois. “Most of the money we’ve raised came through auctions and other things. We’re trying to come up with more on our own to put other things in.”

For the softball team, it is already an improvement. Their old field was on the first tier of a hill behind the old high school. The outfield had part of the mound in play. Players weren’t allowed to be positioned on the hill before play began.

“The hill was good and bad,” said Salois. “It’s good when they hit the ball and the hill stops it, but when we’re up to bat, it can stop our hits too.”

Without that hill, the batters have a whole different view.

“The hill, it changed everything,” said Salois. “When you’re up to bat, there’s nothing to stop it. It seems more wide open.”

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