CAZENOVIA — The Cazenovia Baseball Softball Association (CBSA) is requesting community support to improve the two youth baseball and softball fields at Burton Street Park.

The organization launched a GoFundMe campaign for the project on Aug. 13.

“The Burton Street Park itself is a great asset to this community,” said CBSA President Brian Gardner. “Youth baseball and softball play a major part in the use of the park, but it also offers skating and hockey, the basketball court, and the playground. We are fortunate to have it right in the center of the village and accessible to everybody. By improving the baseball fields we will better the overall experience of not only the players, but also the families and other communities that come to play and spectate.”

According to the GoFundMe page, both fields will be “completely refinished with a dirt infield and surrounding grading and drainage improvements that will create a safe and reliable playing surface . . . [Donating] benefits current and future baseball and softball families through a surface that gives every young athlete the chance to learn and play the right way.”

Currently, the fields have cinder/stone dust infields.

“Baseball mix infields are smoother and more uniform and provide consistent footing and ball response,” explained Gardner. “Players have to react differently to ground balls and base running on the cinder/stone dust. The new infields will allow our young players to feel more comfortable and confident sliding and fielding balls. Our current fields are the only youth fields in the area with the cinder/stone dust infield. When players travel to other towns, and when they progress to playing at the school level, they will play on infields with baseball mix. We want the play of baseball and softball to feel the same from tee ball to varsity, regardless of where we are playing and at what age. The play of the infield should be consistent throughout.”

According to Gardner, CBSA plans to regrade and shape the park’s current infields to fill in low areas and help control runoff when the fields are wet. It also plans to use sod to better define the base paths and the area behind home plate.

Additionally, Field 1 will feature a professionally built dirt pitching mound for player-pitch youth baseball, and Field 2 will have a portable pitching mound that will enable multiple sports and age groups such as youth baseball, softball, coach pitch and t-ball, to use the field.

The field improvement project is a combined effort of CBSA and the Village of Cazenovia, which has already begun increasing the space along the first base path on Field 2 to provide more room for spectators. The village is also rebuilding the first base dugout on Field 2.

CBSA uses the Burton Street fields from April to mid-October each year.

“We typically have 150 to 200 kids playing tee ball, softball and baseball in our organization,” said Gardner. “We have seen an increase in interest and more teams at all levels over the last few years, even with a canceled spring season due to COVID last year. Last summer we were able to create a safety protocol to allow kids and families to come together, outside and socially distanced, for the first time in months and participate in a sport that they enjoy. We couldn’t have done this without the Burton Street fields and the support of the Village of Cazenovia.”

According to Gardner, the GoFundMe campaign is completely independent of the organization’s regular season working budget, which is funded by player registration fees and donations from sponsors.

“That money is allocated to equipment, umpire fees, insurance and league fees required to run a season,” Gardner said. “We don’t intend to use any money from that to support this goal, and registration fees will remain affordable for families. In turn, every donation toward our $25,000 goal will be spent on field improvements to benefit the play and spectating of baseball and softball and will not contribute to our regular season costs.”

The association hopes to raise enough funds to begin renovations this fall.

As of Aug. 26, the community had contributed nearly $6,000.

To view the GoFundMe site, visit gofundme.com/f/burton-street-field-improvements.

CBSA is also selling raffle tickets to win a PlayStation 5. All proceeds from the raffle will go toward the field improvements. Tickets can be purchased for $5 each or five for $20 at the Cazenovia Farmers’ Market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sept. 4, Sept. 11 and Sept. 18. The drawing will be held Saturday, Sept. 18.

Community members are also encouraged to consider donating their bottles and cans to CBSA at Caz Cans.

To learn more about Cazenovia Baseball Softball Association, visit cazbaseballsoftball.org or email [email protected].