(Photo by Robert Ford)
For baseball fans, there will be a new show in town this summer.
The Saugerties Stallions will begin their inaugural season at Cantine Field June 2. The collegiate-level team is made up of players from Division 2 and 3 schools looking to play summer ball.
The Stallions will be part of the Perfect Pitch League. While not as high-level as the Cape Cod League or the Northwoods League in the upper Midwest, “the kids that play in the Perfect Pitch League will provide an exciting brand of baseball,” said team owner Marty Radford of North Carolina. “I believe that we will have a big following in Saugerties as soon as our first game.”
Radford said Saugerties had been scouted as a site for some time and the recent installation of lights sealed the deal.
“This has been a 16-month project getting ready to play in Saugerties,” Radford said.
This year, there will be a lot of Hudson Valley players on the team, Radford said, but as the team grows fans will see players from throughout the East Coast and beyond.
Non-local players will be housed at the College of St. Rose and bused to Cantine for games, while next year, Radford hopes to have local families hosting players in their homes.
Radford is an amateur collegiate baseball entrepreneur of sorts. He’s been around the game for years and has baseball teams in the Myrtle Beach section of South Carolina as well as collegiate women’s softball teams. He says he is currently in negotiations to start a league in Havana.
Radford has signed a five-year lease at $15,000 per year with the town of Saugerties for the use of Cantine Field, a deal that town council members have lauded as a good one for the coffers of Saugerties and good for local baseball fans, as well.
The Saugerties team’s first games are at home on June 2, 3, and 4 and the season extends through the end of July. All games start at 6:35 p.m.