Adelanto Stadium will use a mostly grass field for High Desert Yardbirds (independent; Pecos League) games this season, an arrangement intended to more easily accommodate soccer and other uses.
A former affiliated Minor League Baseball home for the High Desert Mavericks (High A; California League) from 1991-2016, Adelanto Stadium remains operational for the Yardbirds–who began playing there in 2017–and soccer’s High Desert Elite FC, a club in the National Premier Soccer League. Other events using an all-grass surface could be staged at the facility as well, so for the coming season the Yardbirds will play on a mostly grass field.
Dirt will remain in the area around home plate, but the base paths will now be marked by chalk lines and a fiberglass pitcher’s mound will be put into place. This will be an unconventional arrangement, but Pecos League commissioner Andrew Dunn recognizes that Adelanto Stadium has to be in a position to easily accommodate non-baseball uses. More from the Daily Press:
The goal, Dunn said, is to preserve the integrity of the field, which recently started playing host to the semi-pro soccer team, High Desert Elite FC, which plays in the National Premier Soccer League.
“It’s a multi-purpose facility, they have a lot of events going on,” Dunn said. “That was kind of the design of the stadium in the beginning.”
The start of the Yardbirds’ third season marks the second season Adelanto Stadium has been under the control of the management duo of Courtney and Aaron Korn, who are also co-owners of High Desert Elite FC.
Courtney and Korn signed a two-year deal in August 2018 after a six-month stint managing day-to-day operations that began that February.
The Yardbirds will begin the regular season in late May, with their home opener scheduled for June 3.