With availability of fields for games and practices often being a problem for local youth baseball and softball teams, the construction of two new fields beginning this week by the City of Yerington is a welcome sight for local Walker River Little League officials and coaches.

“As our league continues to grow,” began Walker River Little League president Jerry Bryant, also a member of the Yerington City Council “a constant challenge has been that there are not enough fields to accommodate both practices and games for all of our teams.”

Bryant continues that in 2022 the local youth baseball/softball organization fielded 36 teams from ages 4 to 16 (tee-ball up to junior/senior levels).

He noted, though, in a partnership with the City of Yerington, and with a sizable donation from Hudbay Minerals, Inc., and its Mason Project, the city is making preparations to start work on two new fields, for the Tee-ball and Farm League levels, as additions to the City’s Joe Parr Sports Complex.

He noted the funding for the project is coming from Hudbay Minerals, which owns the Mason copper deposit east of Yerington, while the City of Yerington will be providing the labor.

Regarding the project, Hudbay Minerals said in a statement, “We are happy to contribute to this important initiative that will support local youth and promote a healthy lifestyle. Our goal is to ensure that the surrounding communities benefit from our presence.”

“This field expansion serves a great purpose both in functionality for our youth sports programs and also beautifies our existing Joe Parr Sports Complex,” Bryant said. “With the donation from Hudbay Minerals we are able to achieve this without any burden to our taxpayers as well. This is a win for the entire community.”

The others members of the Walker River Little League board of directors were excited with this news.

Bryant continued that one of the new fields, located north of the tennis courts and west of the existing Reviglio Field. “This extra space will allow for our smallest sluggers to have their own field, built to smaller outfield proportions to keep all players closer to the action,” noting the best part might be the close proximity to restrooms.

The dimensions of this field will remain at 60 feet for bases (the same as Little League minors and majors divisions) so as to allow for the other divisions to also use the field for practices, at least for the infield, when not in use by Tee-ball players.

The other new field, located northeast of the Buck Aiazzi baseball field (used by minors and majors divisions), will be earmarked for the Farm Division (generally ages 6-8) and also utilize 60-foot base dimensions to allow for use by older players.

This change will allow for less demand for games on the Buck Aiazzi (use for minors and majors baseball) and Reviglio (minors/majors softball) fields and more time for all teams to practice and improve their skills.

About Hudbay 

Hudbay (TSX, NYSE: HBM) is a diversified mining company with long-life assets in North and South America. The company’s Constancia operations in Cusco (Peru) produce copper with gold, silver and molybdenum by-products. Its Snow Lake operations in Manitoba (Canada) produce gold with copper, zinc and silver by-products. Hudbay has an organic pipeline that includes the Copper World project in Arizona and the Mason project in Nevada (United States), and its growth strategy is focused on the exploration, development, operation, and optimization of properties it already controls, as well as other mineral assets it may acquire that fit its strategic criteria. Hudbay’s mission is to create sustainable value through the acquisition, development and operation of high-quality, long-life deposits with exploration potential in jurisdictions that support responsible mining, and to see the regions and communities in which the company operates benefit from its presence. Further information about Hudbay can be found on www.hudbay.com.