Last weekend, the Union County Joint Recreation District fields on County Home Road were host to the 2021 Dean Lowry Memorial Marysville Mitts baseball tournament.
The UCJRD complex has been a work in progress that started years ago with one pod of four baseball diamonds and soccer fields. As of today, the complex has two pods of ball diamonds, for a total of eight, as well as a rugby field and an area for cricket, in addition to the soccer fields.
Baseball diamonds 1 through 4 have brand new turf, two of which have lights. The lighted fields replaced the old YMCA field that was the only other area field with lights. There are also four new dirt fields that were finished last year.
Fans in the stands as well as members of the teams that played in the tournament raved about how nice the ballpark is and appreciated the Mitts program for organizing the event.
The tournament brought in thousands of people to watch more than 50 teams with players ages 8-15-years-old. It was named for Dean Lowry, a former coach in the program who had passed away.
The Mitts tourney was not the first event at the new complex this year because it followed the Kitchen softball tourney as well as a Midwest Factory baseball tourney that were both in May.
Knowing that the complex has made quite a good first impression on many is a boon for the area as well as the local economy.
We hope the city, county and Paris Township, that make up the UCJRD, continue to invest in the complex so it can host central Ohio youth baseball/softball tournaments for years to come and bring in dollars from outside the community to boot.