The Evans Sports Complex, home of the Riverside City College baseball Tigers, underwent its standard maintenance procedures during the holidays in preparation for the start of the season.
A supposed “re-seeding” of fine sand was poured over the current playing surface to help maintain its stability and consistency.
However, granite rocks, some being nearly the size of golf balls, were scattered throughout the field when this seeding was done.
Tigers assistant coach Tony Lopez said players would walk all along the field after practice collecting large pieces of these rocks and some even finding shards of glass. A cardboard package box was filled with all these findings.
Tigers head coach Rudy Arguelles expressed his concerns for the safety of his players and the structural integrity of the field.
“This field is like a classroom,” Arguelles said. “If this was happening down at the science building it would be deemed hazardous.”
Arguelles cited a lack of communication from the administration as the primary reason for the frustration of his staff.
New mandates were made prior to the start of the 2025 season, which included the addition of the pitch clock and need for each dugout to have a fence. Both were being added just days before opening day after Arguelles was told the projects would be done in the summer of 2024, then after a delay, Dec. 2024. Both of which did not come true.
The dugout fences were completed just in time for opening day Jan. 24. but the Tigers had to improvise and use a football play clock in place for the pitch clock system that had not yet arrived.
Finally, a couple of weeks into the season, all seems to be taken care of for now. The Tigers had to play at the nearby Totman Stadium on the campus of California Baptist University Jan. 31 as The Evans Sports Complex playing surface was being releveled. Parts of the infield dirt were also taken out and replaced with a new sod mix, RCC Athletic Director Cliff Dochterman said.
The pitch clock system which will be manually operated by the umpires has also arrived and Dochterman hopes that it is ready to go by the Tigers game against Barstow on Feb. 6.
