Laurel City Council starts construction on more softball fields

LAUREL, Miss. (WDAM) - The Laurel City Council met for their regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 16, where the discussion turned to the topic of building more softball fields.

Laurel has a large baseball community and serves as a host city for the Dixie Youth World Series.

In order to host more large-scale events, Mayor Johnny Magee said the sportsplex is gearing up to build more fields - this time for softball.

“We’re coming to finish the four other fields,” said Magee. “It started out as an eightplex. We completed four fields so that we would have enough fields for our world series last year. So, we rushed and got the four fields done. We still have four more fields to complete.”

The fields will also include all new equipment, making Laurel ready to host more teams and tournaments.

“We’ll have new press boxes, new fields, new fencing, parking lots and everything,” said Magee.

With construction underway, Magee hopes to make Laurel the premiere destination for both baseball and softball.

“Laurel is the baseball capitol of Mississippi, and we want it to become the softball capital also,” said Magee.

The new fields should be finished by late April 2023.

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