What’s the toughest high school ballpark to hit a home run? Coaches and players weight in
During a regular-season win over Clarion Limestone, Karns City baseball Josh Smith watched two of his batters bash no-doubt homers — in most every other ballpark than the one their team was playing in.
Unfortunately for his Gremlins, Pullman Park is to deep fly balls what black holes are to light.
“We hit two balls over 350-plus feet that weren’t even close to getting out today in left-center field,” Smith said. “It’s crazy. A lot of numbers would be a lot different if people didn’t play at Pullman as much as they do.”
Unsurprisingly, with its massive dimensions — 347 feet down the left-field line, 385 to left center, 425 to deep center, 352 to right center and 325 down the right-field line — the venerable hub of Butler County baseball was named as the hardest place for high school players to notch a home run by multiple coaches.
Longtime Seneca Valley coach Eric Semega compared Pullman to his team’s home digs.
“It’s 386 (feet) right there below the scoreboard in this field,” Semega said. “But, there, it’s like 386 everywhere. … If you hit one out of there, you didn’t miss it.”
Freeport freshman Ashton Bricker has played at Pullman with his travel team. The farthest ball he’s hit so far was a one-hopper to the park’s center field wall.
“That’s just a giant field compared to some of the other places you normally play,” Bricker said.
While Pullman bears the distinction of being a home run hitter’s worst nightmare, there are a few other spots in the area that are tough to clear.
Freeport’s field has its own quirk.
“The left field in Freeport, not only is it the distance … but they have their own built-in Green Monster, if you will, in left field, which is just the hill,” Mars coach Jason Thompson said, referring to the Boston Red Sox’ iconic left field wall. “That takes an absolute poke. I think that’s probably the most difficult place that I’ve seen out in Butler County.”
Ed Carr, the Yellowjackets’ coach, has seen a few get over the fence out there with the wind. It’s 346 feet down the foul line on that side, 360 to the left-center gap and 387 to dead center.
“Kinda up the hill between the 360 and the 387, (it’s) gotta be every bit of 390 (feet) the way it’s shaped there,” Carr said. “That’s a shot, man. I haven’t seen too many there. … Our field is definitely huge.”
Bricker blasted a walk-off home run to that part of the field against Ligonier Valley this season. The Rams’ pitcher offered him “a low-middle fastball, and it shot right out of the hand,” said Bricker, who notched four homers this season. “I was like, ‘Oh, this is a pitch that I can crush, so I gave it whatever I could.”
He’d only hit one over the fence there before in batting practice.
“People think about, ‘Oh, you have to swing hard or something like that to hit one over center,’” Bricker said. “But you really just gotta catch the ball with the barrel and be smooth with it. And normally when you do that, the ball can find a way to go pretty far.”
Thompson has seen one player come close to pushing one over the toughest location on the Planets’ field — Mars product and St. Louis Cardinals second baseman JJ Wetherholt.
“It’s probably more of a product of just for high school players, is that just true, dead, straightaway center shot,” Thompson said. “The one I just never really have seen is, this one is just right of center, that’s out by (where) we have a venue for ticket-taking. … It’s kinda the deepest part for us, and I’ve never seen anyone hit one over there.”
Slippery Rock University’s full turf field has dimensions that are “very favorable for a hitter,” said Smith, who once played for The Rock. “It just doesn’t seem like the ball flew out of there when we played.”
The wind, he added, always seemed to blow toward the batter’s face.
“To hit it out over the 375 sign, you better hit it 400 feet, is what it always felt like,” Smith said. “It just seemed like the ball didn’t fly that well there. I don’t know why — the lay of the land, the hillsides, you just never know.”
