The Husson University Eagles baseball team will play three consecutive North Atlantic Conference doubleheaders at the Winkin Complex beginning Friday.
They will be using a portable fence provided by Allan Farm Fence Co. of Hermon because the Winkin Complex still has a few inches of snow on its warning track.
The rest of the field is free of snow.
The fence will shorten the home run distances by 15-20 feet, according to Husson head coach Jason Harvey.
Husson (2-7 overall) entertains the University of Maine at Farmington at 2 p.m. Friday before hosting doubleheaders against Colby-Sawyer of New London, New Hampshire, at noon Saturday and Sunday.
In Orono, the University of Maine has altered its home-opening America East series against Albany because of the weather.
The Black Bears and Great Danes were scheduled to play two games Saturday and one Sunday, but officials have pushed the series back by one day. The teams will play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. Sunday, then will conclude the three-game set with a contest at 2 p.m. Monday.
Mahaney Diamond is mostly clear of snow, with the exception of a few spots around the warning track. The decision to postpone stemmed from Saturday’s chilly forecast with a high temperature of 33 degrees and winds out of the north/northwest at 10 mph, gusting to 16 mph.
UMaine was only able to play a single game last weekend at Hartford as Sunday’s contests were canceled because of cold and wind that put wind chills into the teens.
UMF is 6-0 overall, 2-0 in the conference, while Colby-Sawyer is 0-10 and 0-2, respectively.
Harvey said that the school’s maintenance crew used snowblowers to reduce the snowpack on the warning track down to “2 inches” but said they couldn’t clear the rest of it “because we have crushed rock on it. The ice sticks to it. Getting it off is always a task.”
He said if they had tried to snowblow it down any further, they would have been shooting rocks everywhere and it also could have damaged the snowblower.
Harvey said his team is ready to play six games in three days. He said they faced the same challenge “two or three years ago.”
“The guys are just anxious to play. They haven’t played in two weeks,” said Harvey.
Husson last played on March 13 when the Eagles split a doubleheader against Dickinson College of Pennsylvania in Winter Haven, Florida.
Harvey said the team has enough pitching to handle the six games.