Pierce College’s Joe Kelly baseball field has been undergoing maintenance in the 2025 baseball season, causing the team to play their home games at nearby Los Angeles Valley College.
Prior to Tuesday, the Brahmas had yet to play a home game on their field this season, leaving the team and their fans to travel locally for home games. Athletic Director Deborah Hefter said there were several factors contributing to the field being unavailable.
“We’ve had a lot of maintenance issues that we needed to take care of and we wanted to make sure that the field was in good playing conditions for the student athletes or for our students in general,” Hefter said. “It took us a bit of time for all of us to get our paperwork underway, we had some delays with the weather and the rain and it kind of skewed the schedule a little bit.”
With the field being unavailable, the team has had to use other campus sports facilities such as the football field for their practices. Head Coach Bill Picketts shared what he felt when finding out the field would be unavailable for home games and how he continued to push the coaching team and players to succeed.
“I stress this to not only my coaches but my team to deal with adversity, it’s a terrible cliche but it is what it is and there’s not much we can do about it,” Picketts said. “I just try to tell them, this is what you have to deal with in baseball. There’s always something that’s never going to be consistent.”
Pitcher Brayden Briscoe said it has been difficult not having a proper home field, despite the team’s recent uptick in performance.
“It’s definitely tough having to go and play only away games. It also sucks not having a place to really call home,” Briscoe said. “It’s definitely something I wish we did have, especially with the success we’re having so far.”
The team’s first home game of the season back at Joe Kelly Field was set for Tuesday, March 25, at 2 p.m. against Cuesta College. Second/Third Baseman Dylan Simon emphasized that the team is excited about being able to play on their field again.
“We’re excited, our first home game is against Cuesta, “Simon said. “It’s a big game, I think everybody is ready to play at home finally so all the parents can come.I think the energy is going to be really good.”
