Practice Your Big-League Swing at the Strike Zone

No matter how far down you find yourself in the bottom of the ninth, you can always pull out a miracle. It takes speed, strength, skill, and courage to seize the moment on the ball field. Preparedness comes from training hard. In rainy spring weather, that means heading to an indoor baseball and softball practice facility. In Farmington that would be the Strike Zone where every day is a training day. You are watching the "Local News Network" brought to you by CMIT Solutions and Pop's Truck and RV Center. I'm Connor Shreve. Strike Zone houses seven roomy batting cages and a large turf area for pitching. It provides helmets, balls, and bats, and one hour lessons. Located just a few blocks from Farmington High School, head softball coach, Tim Trotter, is grateful for the Strike Zone's handy proximity.

We pretty much utilize this place every day. I've kind of over the last few years gotten used to going inside first, no matter the weather, and then going out to the field. The Strike Zones been awesome this year. I mean, we're really close to the high school. Obviously, it helps with the proximity for the drive. It's kind of in between here and the fields that we have to go to every day. Gives us a big open space so that when I have the whole group, it ends up being a lot of kids, so it's nice to be able to get everybody in at one time as opposed to having to come in multiple times. Yeah, we've really been blessed to be able to bring the kids in here and get some good work.

The Strike Zone allows whole teams to come in for practice, and individuals who want to practice hitting or pitching balls. 13 year old, Liberti Shaw, is happy to be at Strike Zone along with her softball team.

We have a lot of things to do in here, and we can hit a lot, and there's a lot of stations that we could go to.

During inclement weather, Strike Zone is a godsend for ball players.

I mean, in New Mexico we have these spring weather that you never know what you're going to get. So, when they can come into a climate controlled atmosphere and not have to worry about their hands stinging or anything like that, you know, you got music playing, you're just kind of going at it. It's more fun to be where you're warm and comfortable than it is to be outside being too hot or too cold when you're doing sports.

Legend Ortero is a varsity pitcher for the Farmington High School softball team. She's been a regular at Strike Zone since she was a toddler

There's a lot of room, so it's really nice to have not so cluttered space and for there to be more room so you can kind of see where your ball would go. It feels nice because the sound of the bat is really good. It's just an awesome place. I love it here.

During the Off season, Strike Zone offers its facility and staff for football teams and players. Located at 309 East 20th Street in Farmington. You must call to reserve a time and space. No walk-ins allowed. For more information about this and other stories, visit farmingtonlocal.news Thank you for watching this edition of the "Local News Network". I'm Connor Shreve.