5 years ago West Marshall High School Baseball Field became a DuraEdge field. I talked to Doug Watt, the head baseball coach, about his journey with DuraEdge.

Doug mentioned that prior to renovation, the infield skin was an ag lime material. It was a combination of very fine sand and silt, which resulted in the infield being very beachy and unstable.  When dry, it was susceptible to wind erosion and when wet, it would still not stabilize. Taking Doug’s issues into consideration, we performed a soil sample test to determine the make-up of his infield. The soil report showed that there was a high silt/clay ratio of 7.4 (the optimum range is 0.5 – 1.0) as well as too much fine sand. From this soil report, we were able to determine the best route in terms of product.

The renovation started by tilling in (1) 24 ton load of FieldSaver 50 to the existing skin at a 2-3” depth. That was then tilled in all directions, laser graded, and compacted. Next, to bring it to grade, 48 tons of DuraEdge Classic Infield Mix was added. This process bound the existing mix together, provided stability, and helped achieve desired optimum levels. 24 tons of Collegiate was added a few years later to get the infield a little firmer.

Doug stated, “DuraEdge provided a superior surface for footing and ball bounce, and has completely solved the instability problem.”

When I asked Doug what stood out the most about the entire experience, he was quick to say the quality–of both service and product. “I received good guidance from my rep at the time, Coby Schmucker. Since I had never done this before, his guidance was very helpful. It was important to me in finding a material that would always be consistent in quality and availability, and that has always been the case.”

“In an area where most fields are ag lime, we now stand out as a superior playing surface that teams enjoy playing on.”

Darin Kain, our territory rep for that area now, just visited the field recently and said, “When I visited the field in March, it looked like a new infield, not something that was installed five years ago. This is a good example of the durability and resiliency of DuraEdge. Doug Watt does a great job maintaining this field. Iowa Sports Turf Field of the Year for good reason!”