Storms tear up Turlock baseball fields, cancel tournaments

Strike one: A five-year drought that killed more than 100 redwood trees.

Strike two: High winds that pushed over trees, ripping up 90 feet of fencing.

Strike three: Heavy rains that toppled 10 eucalyptus trees, unable to remain upright in rain-saturated soil.

It was one, two, three strikes and softball games were out at Pedretti Park, just west of Highway 99 in Turlock. Four two-day adult tournaments, each involving 16 local and regional softball teams, had to be canceled in February because of the damage and wet field conditions.

For facilities scheduler Mark Crivelli, the race is on to get the park’s five ball diamonds in shape for teams of 10- through 15-year olds planning to play March 4 and 5.

Young outfielders in Field 3 will be standing 20 barren yards or so away from traffic roaring down southbound Highway 99, a proximity mitigated for decades by a screen of eucalyptus trees that did not survive the last storm.

“The (trees) that fell were actually here before the facility opened,” said Crivelli, adding that park designers laid out the fields to leave as many existing trees as possible. Pedretti Park, named for the late Turlock High coach Atch Pedretti, opened in 1977.

“It’s a huge impact to this facility as those trees were somewhat of a signature item at the park. They created not only a sound and safety barrier along 99, but they were just beautiful,” said Allison Van Guilder, head of the Turlock Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities Department.

To get the park up and running again, replacement trees of an undetermined variety and perhaps additional netting to catch over-the-fence fly balls will be needed.

“We’re really just trying to evaluate our options right now,” she said.

Plans were already in the works to use a grant from Pacific Gas and Electric to replace the 100 redwoods with 60 more-drought-tolerant trees. She ticked off sycamore, Chinese pistache, red oak and crepe myrtle, but the layout and varieties have not been finalized.

The city plans to plant adolescent trees in 24-inch boxes to give much-needed summer shade a head start. Van Guilder said the city is hoping community groups will step up to help with the planting this spring.

“Obviously I did not have this in my budget plan,” she said.

This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Storms tear up Turlock baseball fields, cancel tournaments."