Admiral Fetterman Field Transforms For Baseball Season

The early-morning wind-chill was in the upper 30's, enough to scream January, when a now-annual rite of spring occurred at Blue Wahoos Stadium. 
Work began to transform the field from a collegitate football gridiron back to baseball, a passage that Dustin Hannah, the Blue Wahoos head groundskeeper, eyes like Christmas morning. 
"Baseball is my thing, my favorite sport," said Hannah, a Crestview native, now in his second season with the Blue Wahoos. "I am extra excited right now that I am going to get a baseball field done." 
Soon afterward, literal tons of grass was lifted, dirt smoothed, baselines emerged. Magic happened. 
Within days, staff from River Region Sports Fields based in Montgomery, Alabama had joined with Hannah and assistant groundskeeper Wes Baldwin to re-make the infield, rebuild the pitcher's mound, and restore home plate.  
The right field and center field areas where temporary bleachers existed for the University of West Florida home football games were re-sodded and other worn areas of the field were replaced.
In less than a week, the baseball field was back, looking ready for Opening Day.
"It's amazing. This is probably one of the most favorite parts of my job, watching this happen," Hannah said.  
"The mound is an eight-hour job. Home plate and base paths can be knocked out in about four hours." 
The sod is supplied by Bent Oak Farm in Foley, Alabama, the same turfgrass facility that has supplied the NFL its playing surface for Super Bowls played on natural grass venues since 2009. 
The sod comes in giant rolls and a forklift operator rolls the turf in place. The composition of the sod enables it to be ready for use almost immediately, which is why NFL and Major League Baseball teams have utilized continue to use the company extensively.
It's known as "lay and play sod." 
"These guys are really good," Hannah said. "Myself and Wes will jump in and help them out when needed, but they have done this so many times. 
"They worked (baseball) stadiums in Atlanta, Houston, along with the Super Bowl. They are a world class company. 
"With perfect weather we can be done in five days. Not so perfect weather, it's two weeks." 
By getting the conversion completed quickly, it allows the field to take shape in February. No events are scheduled at the stadium this month by design.
This is the fourth time the field has gone through a conversion process since the University of West Florida began its football program.  
The first baseball games of the 2019 at Blue Wahoos Stadium will be held March 1-3 at the Cox Diamond Invitational, hosted by Pensacola Sports. The collegiate tournament features Tennessee, Western Kentucky, Louisiana-Monroe, and the University of North Florida.
Later in March, there will be three high school baseball games played involving Pensacola area teams, including two games on March 12 (West Florida vs. Pace; Catholic vs. Gulf Breeze) and another on March 18 (Escambia vs. Milton).  
The UWF baseball team will face the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on March 20 as part of a full-week stay by the Warhawks, the alma mater of Blue Wahoos owner Quint Studer. 
Hannah said it's essential that February is the lone month without any event in order for the field to recover.  
"It goes through a lot with 70 (Blue Wahoos) games in the summer then football and all the other things we do on the field," he said. 
From a year ago, Hannah and Baldwin learned how to better address the infield area that is sod-covered during football months.  
"With the grass laying over the infield, the infield was pretty firm, hard, and locked up," he said. "This year I wanted it more moist, so we can get a tiller on the infield and not be working with locked up clay."