A flood ruined their baseball fields, but with neighbors’ help the season isn’t lost

The turf that once held the outfield fence is gone — washed into a creek that runs behind the once-pristine baseball fields.

The pitchers’ mounds and infield clay are also mostly washed away.

The smell of an overflowed sewage line still lingers in the air.

To say the least, the fall season of the University Little League is off to a challenging start.

Last weekend, one of North Texas’ most popular youth baseball leagues experienced a massive flood at their fields near the southwest corner of Interstates 35W and I-20 in south Fort Worth.

Three of the four fields were immersed in several feet of water after the rain began on a Friday. The rain persisted during the weekend, and by the time it subsided league organizers found tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to their diamonds.

But baseball — especially youth baseball — has a way of bringing people together.

Former players, their parents and even some neighboring rival leagues have pledged to help University Little League recover from the mess.

Beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday, some Paschal High School baseball players plan to do some cleanup work at the fields. Their efforts will come after several groups of University Little League players and their parents spent several days this week hauling off trash, removing damaged fences and making other repairs.

“Ninety percent of these kids played here when they were younger,” said Tres Morris, a father of a baseball player who is helping to organize the Paschal cleanup. “All of these kids are required to do community service hours. This is a way for them to give back to an organization where they learned to play baseball.”

Neighboring organizations such as Fort Worth’s Western Hills Little League and Arlington Southwest Little League have made arrangements for University Little League to use their fields for the rest of the fall. Only one of University Little League’s four fields can be used — and that’s likely to remain the case for weeks, and possibly a couple of months.

For Katie Grieve-Danzi, who took the helm as president of the University Little League earlier this year, the goal is to get the fields repaired by the start of the spring season. But it’s not going to be easy. Grieve-Danzi estimates that it will cost thousands of dollars to build a retaining wall to rebuild the outfield that washed into the creek.

But once again, the baseball community is rallying. The league created a GoFundMe page that by Thursday had already raised $41,097 of its $50,000 goal.

Also, the Texas Rangers professional baseball club has made an unspecified donation — Grieve-Danzi calls it “sizable” — to offset the cleanup costs.

During the past four or five days, baseball players, their parents and other volunteers have been out at the fields trying to help with the cleanup.

“At one point we had about 50 people out here. They came with their tools,” Grieve-Danzi said. “I couldn’t believe how much work they got done. They were able to remove the perimeter fences on three fields in five hours.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2018 at 7:00 AM with the headline "A flood ruined their baseball fields, but with neighbors’ help the season isn’t lost."