CALGARY -- Tuesday night was an exciting one for Cohen Achen of Babe Ruth baseball’s Triple A Indians.
It was his first time on the baseball field since everything got shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 18-year-old is a pitcher and infielder. He says the best part of getting back on the field was seeing his teammates.
“Being able to come out here and play with some friends and get back out is really good,” he told CTV.
“To be able to throw again is awesome. I’ll probably be able to be college ready by the time I get back in September.”
Achen, who also goes to Big Bend Community College in Washington State can only practice right now. Not that he’s complaining.
Everyone on the field has to follow all the guidelines and protocols set out by Alberta Health officials.
New guidelines
Sam Marino is the technical director for Babe Ruth Baseball. He’s helping run the practices so that everyone follows Alberta Health guidelines and protocols.
He says there’s a lot of new things to get used to.
“"(It's) just (about) making sure everyone is working on the same page," Marino said. "We also have cones lining out everything. No more free moving around. It’s all structured. You can’t take to the field until another group leaves. Just making sure everyone maintains that social distancing.”
The hope is that the boys of summer will be able to get back to playing in the fall.
Achen says there’s a chance they could get news about that on Thursday.
“My coach had told me it’s about a 95 per cent chance that we will. Obviously with some restrictions but he did say that we will play ball in the fall.”
Marino says right now the main thing is keeping everyone safe. But he says it sure would be good to see the kids playing baseball again in the fall.
“Everything is dependant on what’s gong on (with the pandemic)," he said. "But the goal is that hopefully by the fall when this all dies down, we’ll be able to kind of get a fall ball team going.”
