The sun teased Syracuse, peeking through the clouds the past two days. While students were pleased, no one was more pleased than the softball team.

The Orange is scheduled for its home opener on Friday against Connecticut and Sunday’s bout with Providence – if Mother Nature permits.

With rain dabbling the field on Thursday afternoon, the most important people for the weekend slate might not be the players nor the coaches, but the grounds crew.

John Foster and Mark Gildemeyer work on the softball field at South Campus. Collectively, they say it took 100 to 150 hours of preparation this week to get the field prepared. After this week, field modifications must be made for practice and for games. Normally, the grounds crew works three hours a day to groom the field. On game days, there is a three-man crew that is responsible for mowing, grooming and painting.

‘We just came out of winter,’ Gildemeyer said. ‘March 30, coming off of winter, it looks pretty good – not to toot our own horns. To be playing on it right now is really good.’

They work on the field year round, but they can’t do any serious work on it until the snow is off the ground. The infield in particular needs to be loosened and dried up during the winter.

‘It’s a fine line with the infield,’ Foster said. ‘It has to be dry but then you see us out here spraying water on it. It can’t be too damp but there has to be a little moisture in it.’

They put the tarp over the field to protect it, but even in that case the weather must be more than 50 degrees and the conditions must be dry in order for the tape to work. Needless to say, it’s less than ideal – at Syracuse, head coach Mary Jo Firnbach is used to it.

‘We don’t ever have those conditions so we’re hoping (the tarp) stays on,’ Firnbach said. ‘If it doesn’t, we’ll have to buy something else or buy a new one.

‘Taking this job at Syracuse, you get into these issues with weather, trying to find places to practice, and finding places to play. It doesn’t make it easier. It’s uncontrollable so you just have to work with it.’

Perhaps it will present a home-field advantage – although the Orange might not need it. UConn was ranked eighth in the Big East’s preseason rankings and has dropped its first two league games. Providence was ranked seventh. SU was fifth. Regardless of the rankings, the Orange understands there’s an extra gear needed for the Big East.

‘It’s the main season,’ Firnbach said. ‘Since we started in January, this has been what we’ve looked towards. We’ve had a lot to accomplish on the field and on the practice field.’

Firnbach thinks the Orange is ready. A difficult non-conference schedule helped prepare SU. They go into Friday’s game 11-9.

Now, it’s just time to cross their fingers and hope the field is playable.

‘We’re lucky to have a wonderful crew working for us getting the field ready,’ said senior catcher Katie Kaempfer. ‘We’re all making strides to get to where we need to be in practice, and we’re ready to show it.’

Staff writer Mark Medina contributed to this report.

Published on March 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm