Sports : Vikings to play Mustangs on new artificial turf tonight

If you drove by the Vinton-Shellsburg High School football field, and saw the unusual sight of players with gloves fielding ground balls, here's why: The Viking varsity baseball team will travel to Independence tonight and become one of the first teams to play on the Mustangs' new artificial field turf baseball diamond.

Independence players and fans dedicated the new field on June 27; the Viking freshman and sophomore teams have already played there.

"The ball gets to you a lot quicker on the turf," said Coach Jim Struve.

So, to prepare the Viking infielders for faster ground balls, the coach moved part of the practice to the football field, so the team could get in som reps at fielding grounders on the faster surface.

After sweeping Williamsburg on Tuesday and Union on Wednesday, the Vikes are 22-13 heading into the final week of regular-season action. They play two games at Independence, followed by one game at Oelwein on Monday before the finale vs. Waverly-Shell Rock at home on Tuesday.

WSR plays its home games on the Wartburg College baseball field, which also has an artificial field turf.

Post-season play

The District tournament begins in one week, as the Vikings will host Benton Community on July 15. The winner of that game will play the winner of the Marion/CPU contest three days later for a right to advance to the Sub-State game on July 20. The Vikingss are hoping to repeat their success from last year, when they advanced to State for the first time since 2009.

See the VS stat page HERE.