Iowa high school baseball and softball teams will go to the plate Monday for their first games of the season. Added safety measures have been put in place to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The safety measures include people spreading out at the ball fields. Local umpire of 35-years Fran Stigers says he’s looking forward to calling strikes, balls, and outs, “I was actually pretty happy because I kind of miss baseball completely. I think everybody’s missing baseball that loves it. I’m glad the kids are going to get a chance to play.”

He shares some of the changes for umpires this year due to COVID-19 health guidelines, “On the field, one of the biggest changes that I have to get used to is we don’t get to sand off the game balls anymore. They come in from the dugouts. We don’t touch the game balls, it’s just less contamination on the ball. They were trying to think of a way to put the plate umpire behind the pitcher and there’s really no way really do that effectively, so they backed off that. And we’re still going to be behind the catcher, where I think we need to be. Hand sanitizer in my bag instead of balls. And just keep an eye on where kids put their hands, if they go to their mouth and then they go to the ball then we have to get the ball out. It’s going to be different.” Stigers adds that if parents, players, or coaches don’t feel well then they shouldn’t go to the ball fields.

Monday night listen to KCII to hear two local games. The Washington softball team will be at Fairfield and the Hillcrest Academy softball team will be playing at Highland. Listen to AM and FM KCII, KCIIRadio.com, or on our free mobile apps for all of the action. Find a calendar of broadcasts here.