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A Few Clouds Molloy and village open new field
Rockville Centre residents and Molloy College students gathered at the Dean G. Skelos Sports Complex on April 10 for the opening of a state-of-the-art NCAA softball field.
The Bob Klein Softball Field is the product of a public/private partnership between the village and the college. The village provided the land, while Molloy funded the capital and entered into a 20-year agreement to continue improvement on the facilities in the upcoming years. Both the village and the Rockville Centre School District have been granted use of the field, and it will serve as home field for the Molloy Lions softball team.
The field’s playing surface is comprised of an artificial turf outfield and DuraEdge clay infield. Two enclosed dugouts, complete with storage units, sit behind the first- and third-base lines. A 150-seat grandstand with an elevated press box is located behind home plate, and a 60-by-33 foot batting cage lies beyond the left-field fence. Permanent outfield fencing, set for NCAA regulation depths, line the perimeter of the field, and existing lights have been maintained and utilized for the facility, making it the only complex with NCAA standard playing lights in the East Coast Conference.
Behind the center field wall, an additional turf tee-ball field is being constructed, and will sport 50-foot bases, team benches, water fountains, and a backstop.
“The completion of this field is the end of a journey that began a few years ago, and while it took longer than I’d have imagined, it is done,” said Dr. Drew Bogner, president of Molloy College. “We are so pleased that we could devise a way to make this softball field as outstanding as possible.”
“I am ecstatic to bring one of the top softball facilities in the region to Rockville Centre,” said Mayor Francis Murray. “You can see, as you look around, what a public and private agreement can do.”
For the ribbon cutting, Bogner and Murray joined head coach Susan Cassidy-Lyke and former Rockville Centre Little League Commissioner Bob Klein, for whom the field was named. Bogner and Murray each threw an inaugural pitch, and the Lions handily won the following double-header against St. Thomas Aquinas College.
“It’s a great day for Rockville Centre, and for Molloy College — a home run for everyone involved,” said Klein “I’m just so glad I got to see it in my lifetime.”
