Hamilton Contracting Inc. is donating a pitching machine to the Orillia Legion Minor Baseball Field House, an indoor training facility at 53 Jamieson Dr.
Hamilton Contracting Inc. owner Steve Hamilton, says making the donation was a win-win situation for both the Field House and Orillia slo-pitch players.
“Slo-pitch has a really big presence in town, and people are driving all the way to Barrie to use their batting cages,” Hamilton said.
“With the way COVID has hit the Field House, it’s barely getting by, so I figured it would help keep a practice facility in our area stay open. It's something to help them keep the lights on,” he said.
Hamilton says the donation was a way for his thriving business to give back to the community.
“We are in a situation where we’ve been working enough to not lose too much ground. We are fortunate enough to be on the good side of things, so we wanted to pass that along,” he said.
Orillia Legion Minor Baseball president Wes Winkel says the organization is thrilled to receive the generous donation from Hamilton Contracting Inc.
“Anytime you can have the equipment people need, it’s a good thing. We appreciate Steve for making this donation. It’s going to be quite beneficial,” he said.
Winkel hopes the slo-pitch pitching machine brings new faces into the Field House.
“Apparently people were going down to Barrie because there is a place with a machine that lobs balls in,” he explained.
“We want to capture that market here and we don’t want people driving down to Barrie when we are trying to get our facility established.”
Winkel believes that more interactions between minor baseball with the slo-pitch community could result in more volunteers and a stronger partnership.
“We hope that this will result in more people getting involved with minor baseball, as we are still struggling with the volunteer pool," Winkel said.
"The more interest we generate, and the more people see the good work we are doing with the facility, hopefully, the more people will get involved."
