SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — The grounds crew at the Little League World Series is responsible for keeping Lamade and Volunteer Stadiums plus the practice fields looking good. For some volunteers, like Jeff Marsowicz, it's a tradition to help showcase their work on the international stage.
"Every day we get here by 8 o'clock in the morning, we have a little breakfast meeting, and then we get our little job assignments so everyone either rakes the field, there's some people that cut the grass, repair the mounds, repair the plate, so there's just a bunch of little jobs that always have to be done," said Jeff Marsowicz, grounds crew volunteer.
Marsowicz says so far volunteers have received lots of compliments from players and fans on the hard work they're putting into the fields.
"Everyone that you walk by when they notice you're on the grounds crew say, 'great job guys, we like the pattern cut in the grass and all that,' so yeah it is a source of pride, we do make the field look good for people not just from the us but from all over the world that come and watch the games." he said.
The grounds crew are here all day and all night making sure the field is in tip top shape for the little leaguers to play on.
"If the dirt gets in the grass you don't want that so blowing it out with the leaf blower on the edges—the amount of work that goes in the dirt a lot of people probably don't see it but you gotta—we have to water it, we have to roll it, we have to rake it, drag it, go over it with a broom, there's a lot that goes into that part of it," said Jillian Ulozas, intern.
Ulozas is from Luzerne County. She's entering her junior year of college at Delaware Valley University and is interning with the grounds crew here at the Little League World Series! She tells us, it's a surreal feeling to work on the fields after being in the stands last year with her parents, watching the games.
"Growing up coming here, after playing a softball tournament all weekend and then just stopping by here to come catch a game or two and now I'm out here on the field being able to work on it, it's very cool." she said.
The grounds crew will be working hard on the fields until the end of the tournament which is August 25th.