After COVID-19 delayed the season, Little League is back at bat in Thurston County

After its early spring season was canceled because of COVID-19, Little League has returned to Thurston County for the summer, with practices and games scheduled through August and talks of a tournament in September, too.

On June 20, the various teams that comprise Capitol Little League (CLL) began practices for the updated summer 2020 season. The league had its first game of the modified summer season on July 9, giving spectators and parents who sat behind the fence line their baseball fix before the start of the MLB season later this month.

Practices are fairly similar to those that took place in the pre-COVID world: Baseball is one of the few sports played where everyone is generously spaced out during much of the play. But updates have had to be made so baseball can be played while following Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start Plan for reopening social activities.

Beyond having spectators limited to 50 people per field and placing them behind the fence line, requirements include:

• Players must hang out on the bleachers instead of in the dugout when their team is at bat. Only three players at a time can be in the dugout, so those waiting for their chance at the plate can have 6 feet of space between one another.
• The dugouts have to be cleaned after every game.
• Umpires can chose where they stand, whether that be behind the catcher or off to the side.
• There are no concession stands. Players will need to bring there own water and water bottles.
• There will be no spitting allowed — which means no sunflower seeds or gum.

“This is all new to a lot of us and it’s hard,” said CLL President Loris Gies. “We’re trying to make an effort to get kids out playing this summer, and get them away from video games.”

Players from across the county are excited to get back on the diamond but are being cautious and cognizant of COVID-19, Stanley Cruz, coach of the Little League Majors team the Mariners, told The Olympian. Players have to follow the new rules.

“The kids know they can play as long as they stay within safety measures,” Cruz said. “When they get sloppy and they don’t follow rules is when it impacts the team and impacts other players and it impacts the league.”

So far, no one in the league has tested positive for COVID-19, and coaches are taking many safety precautions when their players gather. Before games, kids have their foreheads scanned to make sure they’re not running a fever and, even though it is not required, many wear masks during practice and when sitting in the bleachers at games.

Coaches will also give safety talks before the start of games to remind their players of the rules they need to follow both on and off the field.

Games this season will be played mostly on CLL’s field in Tumwater, next to the Olympia Regional Airport on New Market Street Southwest. The season is scheduled to go through July and August before ending in September — although that could change if COVID-19 cases continue to rise in Thurston County, causing a regression to Phase 2 of the Safe Start plan.

“If we’re in Phase 2, we won’t have a meaningful season,” Gies said.

Little League Baseball, the nationwide non-profit organization that helps regulate and run leagues in all 50 states, canceled its annual world series this year. The cancellation meant that games played this season do not advance a team’s rank nationally. The organization also released new rules for the 2020 season, which relaxed some of the regulations regarding who could play where. Now, kids who live in areas where their local league was not able to restart for the summer can join leagues that did and play on those teams.

In Thurston County, CLL is the only league that started back up again, so Gies brought other teams into CLL so kids would have the opportunity to keep playing the game they love. Cruz’s team, which is normally part of the Black Hills League, was absorbed into CLL for the summer season. This year, there are eight majors U-12 teams playing under CLL.

“I really want to thank Loris, our president. She’s been really on top of things,” Cruz said.

Gies’s efforts to make a season happen this year were ceaseless. She had to give refunds to families who’s children no longer chose to participate; about 200 players dropped out, leaving 450 left to play. She had to find a way to get new uniforms for players, and buy around $3,000 worth of balls to be used during games. She had to lease the fields from the port of Olympia for the season. And she had to come up with a plan that provided safety criteria up to or exceeding the standard of Gov. Inslee’s two sports guidance documents.

“I’m going to be really happy to see a baseball game,” Gies said. “It’s been a long wait.”