The opening day for the Deep South Collegiate League is now planned.
The eight-team league will open the season on Saturday, June 13 and will be played at the Laurel Sportsplex starting at 10:30 a.m.
“(Laurel) was the best option to start (opening) day and let fans come (because) really the only fields that can let fans come are Pearl River Community College and Laurel,” DSCL founder Colton Caver said. “Pearl River had something scheduled (on Saturday), so we are doing opening day (on Saturday) so that all the parents can come and watch for the first time.”
The rest of the season will be played at either Pearl River CC or Columbia High School on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
“We originally had planned on playing more in the Hattiesburg, Oak Grove and Sumrall area,” Caver said. “The school board and administrations were uncomfortable letting people play in their facilities with everything going, which is completely understandable. We had to look for closer options, and those are the two closest options to the Hattiesburg area.”
However, according to PRCC coach Michael Avalon, hosting the league is a way to help summer baseball.
“This is really just a way for us to help the game of baseball,” Avalon said. “They approached us with a need. One of the reasons we went to a turf field a few years ago was for things like this and host events. It’s a good opportunity with our venue for them to put a quality product for fans and people around the area to come and enjoy baseball. I think we will have pretty good fan support because people are looking for something to support.”
PRCC will follow the health guidelines and can allow only 100 people to its games.
“There are going to be guidelines that they have to follow in regards to the COVID-19 information,” Avalon said. “We are going to follow all state and city guidelines that have been given to us from the governor and mayor of our city. Right now, it’s only 100 people allowed, outside of the players and coaches. That’ll be something we have to regulate, and we will make sure that we do a deep cleaning after every game and after we host something.”
The DSCL also has plans to livestream games at PRCC and is also in the process of setting up livestreams at Columbia High School.
The DSCL will release its full schedule, rosters and provide more updates on Twitter @deep_league.
