Grass cut shorter, perseverance brings progress for Buckeyes’ CC
by Jessica Ostrau of The Lantern
The Ohio State Cricket Club has been requesting shorter grass for 10 years. Finally, Karen Crabbe of Facilities Operations and Development is helping the team trim its troubles away.
Crabbe has instructed the Facilities Operations and Development groundskeepers to cut the grass half an inch shorter by the Jesse Owens West Tennis Center, where the cricket pitch is located, said Romel Somavat, the club president.
In the past, when the club played on the pitch, even the All-American club president, Somavat, hit fly balls because the grass was too long to hit grounders, he said.
“It was the only way we had a chance of scoring any runs,” Somavat said.
By keeping the ball on the ground, a batsman limits the chances of an outfielder to make the play, Somavat said.
However, the men of the OSU team had to adjust their technique to an all fly-ball game.
“When guys played on our team for a couple of years, they were actually getting worse,” he said.
Through e-mail, different directors in Rec Sports told Somavat, who has been president for two years, that Facilities Operations and Development was unable to make any changes to the grass length. However, no one ever put the team in direct contact with Facilities Operations and Development, Somavat said.
After years of frustration within the club, Somavat took action.
“I walked up to the man who was cutting the grass and asked if he could cut it any shorter,” he said.
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