BARRIE -- Baseball players from the sunshine city have a new option that will help them complete with big city ballplayers.
The Orillia Legion Minor Baseball League has built a new indoor baseball training facility. The facility has about 4,000 square-feet of turfed flooring and three netted lanes for pitching. It also has a pitching machine and a portable pitching mound, but most importantly, it allows high-level players to train indoors during the cold and snowy winter months.
"All the teams that we're competing against have these facilities and off-season is the time for honing their skills," explains league executive, Wes Winkle. "Working on the technical aspects of swinging and pitching without a proper facility makes it very difficult to teach those skills."
Orillia Royals coach Terry Errico says it's pretty close to the real thing. "It might not be real grass on the ground, but it certainly feels like it. It's warm and we are hitting real balls. We're hearing the crack of the bat. They can throw a helmet on, and they're ready to go ".
For years players in Orillia and many other nearby small communities have had to train in small school gyms, but there have been issues.
Royals player Lucas Mackey says practicing in the new facility versus the gym takes some of the stress away. "You're always worried you're going to break something in the gym - that you're going to have to pay for it. In here you've got nets all around us, and you can just really go as hard as you can and really try hard and get ready for the start of the season."
The league is leasing the space and welcomes other teams and other sports to make use of it. From lacrosse to soccer and even football, teams will be able to rent the facility.
"The demand has been way bigger than expected. We've only had the announcement out a week, and there's been a lot of contact, a lot of people looking for space, "says Winkle.
Anyone interested in renting the indoor training facility can contact the Orillia Legion Minor Baseball.
