Alan Haller says he's committed to solving the flooding at MSU's baseball, softball fields

Graham Couch
Lansing State Journal
The flooded area outside Michigan State's McLane Baseball Stadium on Thursday, April 6, 2023, in East Lansing.

Michigan State’s baseball and softball seasons have enough challenges with the elements without also having their fields under water. This spring, for the third time in seven years, the Red Cedar River spilled over its banks and flooded MSU’s baseball, softball and soccer stadiums.

It forced MSU’s softball team to play a scheduled home game against Iowa at Davenport University in Caledonia — with the water receding in time for a doubleheader at Secchia Stadium two days later — and prompted the Spartan baseball team to host a series against Ohio State at Jackson Field in downtown Lansing.

“If we didn’t have that, we probably would have had to go to Ohio State, which you certainly don’t want to do,” MSU baseball coach Jake Boss said. “ … Fortunately (Jackson Field) was available.”

MSU Athletic Director Alan Haller sees the situation as unacceptable.

The entrance to Michigan State's Pentecost Plaza at Old College Field is flooded on Thursday, April 6, 2023, in East Lansing. The plaza is home to the McLane Baseball Stadium, the Secchia Softball Stadium and the DeMartin Soccer Stadium.

“I mean, I get it. It's a flood plain,” Haller said. “You can't really move a floodplain. But I do think over decades of having the same issue, we should be able to look at it and say, 'Well, let's do something.' … It’s on my plate now. It's on our clock.”

Haller called Boss and MSU softball coach Sharonda McDonald-Kelley to apologize and told the softball team he was committed to addressing the problem.

“He told the players, there’s going to be a plan for this,” McDonald-Kelley said.

RELATED: Couch: Inside Sharonda McDonald-Kelley's attempt to remake Michigan State softball

MSU's fields flooded in April of 2017, forcing the softball team's scheduled home game against Michigan to be played in Arbor and moving a home series against Penn State and Illinois to Eastern Michigan and Davenport, respectively. MSU's baseball team, meanwhile, played a series against Fresno State at the West Michigan Whitecaps ballpark because the Lugnuts' stadium wasn't available. The flooding was so severe that Secchia Stadium's infield and outfield had to be replaced.

The fields flooded again in May of 2020, but those baseball and softball seasons had been canceled due to the pandemic.

“We’ve just got to have a sense of taking care of people better,” Haller said. “I can't tell you I'm going to correct it next year. I can tell you that we're going to have a strategic approach to addressing it, whatever that is — if that's putting pumps out there, if it's moving the fields, whatever it is. But I just don't think every year we should have this issue. And we have it every year. And it has to be more than, 'Well, you know, if they're only missing a couple of games.' I think it's a little bit bigger than that.”

Contact Graham Couch at gcouch@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Graham_Couch.