ROCKLAND — Once renovations got underway at the Thomaston Street baseball and softball fields in Rockland, there has been no stopping. 

The renovations project kicked off its fundraising efforts in May with an auction, followed by a yard sale and raffle tickets for Boston Red Sox game. The group is still in the process of raffling tickets for a Billy Joel concert and another Red Sox contest. 

On Thursday, Aug. 10, George Hall and Sons, with the help of Bill Lappanen, “grubbed out and started [a] drainage trench” around the softball field, according to a Facebook post on the Save Oceanside Fields page.

Claybrook Landscaping has also spent time at the field helping make plans for the infield renovations and will continue to work with the group on the new infield design. The two infields will also be brought to higher-standards. Both infields “need to have infield mix [to] make them playable,” Doris Norton stated in a press release, while the baseball field “will need to have the infield grass removed and replace[d] with turf.” 

In a Aug. 7 press release, the group announced Viking Lumber donated all the roof shingles needed to replace the dugout roofs, which totals up to a $1,500 value.

Renovations began Thursday, Aug. 3 with the removal of bushes and trees surrounding the fields and continued Friday, Aug. 4 with the removal of fencing around the fields. Newport Fence will be erecting the new fence and backstop, according to Norton, while the baseball field will include new fencing to enclose pitcher’s in a new bullpen area, the dugouts and wood replacement on the backstop. 

The group, officially known as Oceanside Improvement Fund, Inc., is spearheaded by Norton, the organization’s president. The non-profit aims to raise money in order to give makeovers to the Robert Morrill baseball field and the soon-to-be Gene Drinkwater softball field. The two fields located on Thomaston Street in Rockland are currently occupied by the district’s middle school diamond squads. The high school teams use fields in Thomaston that were once used by Georges Valley. The plan is to have the varsity teams utilize the Rockland fields and the middle school teams utilize the Thomaston fields upon completion of the renovations.

The group has received school board approval from Regional School Unit 13 to raise these funds and has received school board support to budget “adequate funds to maintain and upkeep these fields once the improvements have been made,” according to a statement posted on the group’s Facebook page.

The organization hopes to have the renovations completed in time for the 2018 season, with regular season games slated to begin in mid-April.

Reach George Harvey and the sports department at: sports@penbaypilot.com.