The George Washington University baseball team christened its new $3 million field at Barcroft Park (4200 S. Four Mile Run Drive) last Friday. The team might have lost the first game at its newly-renovated home field, but it was a victory for a Division I athletic program that finally has a Division I-caliber field.
“It was a recreational field before,” coach Steve Mrowka told the GW Hatchet. “You couldn’t really have a solid game there.”
Now, the field has artificial turf, full-sized dugouts and more standard playing dimensions. Mrowka told the Hatchet that he believes the field will improve the team’s play and help with recruitment.
The Arlington County Board approved the plan to renovate Barcroft Field #6 in September, in an agreement with GW that called for the school to pay for all renovations and to split maintenance costs 25/75 with the county. While GW is given priority on the field for games and practices, it is open for use by the community at other times (about 75 percent of playable hours).
Though the team is playing there now, work on the field is not complete. Construction crews are still busy adding features like 500-person seating capacity seating, a new concessions area, permanent dugouts and a reconfigured parking lot.
GW will be playing home games against Shepherd at the field on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 1:00 p.m. See a full game schedule on the GW Baseball website.
