June 2005

MCC grant funds new batting cage at MHS

By Logan Dancey

Molalla Pioneer

The Oregon rain can rust almost anything, but next season it won’t be any match for the swings of the Molalla High School baseball team.

Thanks to a $15,000 grant from Molalla Communications Company, the Indians will have a new batting cage. Construction began roughly two weeks ago and the outer frame of the building is already standing next to Al Geddes Field.

“It’s going to help a lot. It’s going to give us a place to go inside when the weather’s bad,” Molalla baseball coach Rick Dishner said. “Springs are pretty goofy here in Oregon. Right now we share the hitting facility with the softball program. Every other day one of us gets it. This will give them their own facility all of the time and our facility all of the time.”

Dishner said the batting cage is a project he’d been planning for about eight years. It finally came together when City Manager Gene Green approached MCC and helped the baseball team secure the funding.

“It’s just a need. I look at it as it’s great for the kids and it’s great for the athletic programs,” Green said. “It’s good for economic development as well. It brings kids into our town.”

Dishner said the facility can be used for hitting clinics and lessons. He added that Molalla baseball players currently pay for clinics in other areas.

“Instead of of people making money off it, we’ll make a fundraiser out of it,” Dishner said. “And nobody will make money off it. It’ll go right back into the program.”

MCC Chief Financial Officer Stephen Jantz said the batting cage adds a recreational activity to Molalla for people of all ages to enjoy.

“There’s definitely a need in the community for those kinds of activities and this a way MCC could help out,” Jantz said.