GRAFTON – The Grafton High School baseball team enjoyed a unique, early season opportunity this week when they headed to Polar Park in Worcester for a game against Doherty.
Originally scheduled as a typical regular season matchup in Grafton, the game was relocated to Worcester as part of an afternoon triple-header that also saw contests between North and South high schools and Burncoat and Narragansett on Friday.
“This opportunity was something we couldn’t pass up, given the student-athlete experience,” Grafton Athletic Director Kevin Anderson wrote in his weekly newsletter update to families as game plans took shape.
Polar Park opened last year as the home of the Red Sox’s AAA minor league affiliate, now known as the WooSox.
It had previously hosted a series of high school football games last year, in addition to its regular slate of WooSox contests.
City and stadium officials had their eyes on high school baseball, though, according to the Worcester Telegram. The result was a “baseball festival” concept to serve as a sort of soft opening ahead of this year’s first WooSox home game on Tuesday.
“What an incredible opportunity for our student-athletes!” Anderson wrote a tweet after the news was announced.
Grafton baseball fans subsequently filed into Polar Park on Friday, filling cordoned off sections of the stadium’s lower deck of seats behind home plate and the Grafton dugout.
Grafton ultimately lost the game by a score of 7-0.
The Gators will be back in action on Monday, though, kicking off another week with additional games on Wednesday against Southbridge and on Friday against Shrewsbury.
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