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Pittsfield Suns Return For Fifth Season On Thursday
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
07:39AM / Saturday, May 28, 2016
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General Manager Kristen Huss is expecting the team to have a good season.


The Maintenance Department renovated the locker rooms and painted a number of areas in the park, including adding Suns logos to various locations.
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Suns rise again on Thursday.
 
The Pittsfield Suns will return to Wahconah Park for its fifth season bringing much of the same fan experience and then some. The Futures League Collegiate Baseball team is in its second year of a new five-year lease extension for the historic park.
 
The club moved to the city in 2012, signed a lease extension in 2015, and is on the path to become the longest tenured team since the Pittsfield Mets. 
 
"We're doing a lot of new things. We are still keeping a lot of the same between inning contests that everybody loves. There are going to be some new ones that I think people will find very entertaining. Opening night we have a couple surprises in store," said General Manager Kristen Huss said. "The fireworks are back and are going to be as great as ever. We have some new food items."
 
Last year the team ranked second in the league for attendance with an average of 1,654 people making it to the ballpark each game. Huss says the hope is to continue to build on that number, setting of a goal of hitting the 1,800 mark, by continually finding new attractions.
 
"We're a little bit ahead in attendance and you want to keep that up. Each year you try to attract more and more people so it is trying to come up with new ideas," Huss said.
 
Each game will feature a theme, from pirate or princess night to Irish and Italian nights. There will be a giveaways. Fireworks will be held after every Friday night home game as well as on opening night, closing night, and on the Fourth of July. There will be a "hero of the night" ceremony before every game honoring local heroes. And some of the staples of the between inning games will return while being mixed with new ones. 
 
The entire menu of food service is returning but with the addition of some new items and a new challenge.
 
"We are trying to take it to the next level and really have the fan experience be even greater," Huss said.
 
Director of Food and Beverage Brian Flagg highlighted a couple of the new items including a "walking taco," which is a bag of corn chips with all of the taco toppings mixed in.
 
"It is a taco but it isn't messy as you are walking around the ballpark. It should be a pretty popular item," Flagg said. "I'm not taking anything off the menu. We've kind of changed around in the ballpark, for instance you could get fried dough in all of the stands before, we are moving fried dough out to our exclusive desert station."
 
At the desert station - subbed Ray's Snack Shack - a new item added is a cheesecake on a stick. 
 
"It's not an item that's sold at a ball park very often so I think we will be a little bit unique in that regard but I think it will go over well because it is really good," Flagg said.
 
And a new challenge, the triple play challenge, gives fans a chance to have their names inscribed on a plaque to hang on the wall. 
 
"For 17 bucks in 15 minutes you have to eat these three items: a double-decker bacon cheeseburger sandwich topped with pulled pork and jalapeños, a double portion of chili cheese nachos topped with jalapeños, and then a 32-ounce fountain drink with no ice," Flagg said. "If you complete that within 15 minutes you get induction into the triple play challenge wall of fame and you get a $20 credit at the merchandise booth."
 
Flagg added that many of the popular items from last year remain including the taco dog and Reuben dog, both available at the right field concession stand. And the staple beershakes will return.
 
"I think we are focused more on the fan experience than anyone. Even though you are coming to the ballpark to get a hot dog, hamburger, or cotton candy, it still has to be quality. I don't buy cheap hot dogs. I buy really good all-beef frank. They are high quality. Everything we do here, we try to do with the highest of quality. If we are going to do a cheesecake, I didn't get some generic thing, I got a good Philly cheesecake," Flagg said. 
 
The team itself will have the a better experience as the city's Maintenance Department renovated the locker rooms, which had fallen into poor condition. In each of the last few years improvements have been made to the park including new sound system, lighting, and the scoreboard was repaired this year. This year the locker rooms received an upgrade while many of the areas received new painting — including Suns logos being painted on a number of locations throughout the park. 
 

The Suns are on a path to have called Wahconah Park home the longest since the Pittsfield Mets.
"There has been a lot of painting; there are fresh coats of paint everywhere. Logos being painted is huge, it makes it look a lot better. The locker rooms were redone for the players, which is nice," Huss said.
 
In the coming year, the city's Maintenance Department hopes to continue those improvements. Director of Maintenance Denis Guyer said he'll be asking for some $300,000 in the capital budget to repair the facade next year. The park is approaching its 100th year anniversary.
 
On the field, Huss said she expects a "well-rounded team" and a team featuring a familiar face. Former Pittsfield High School standout Kevin Donati is on the roster this year.
 
"The team on paper looks very well. We have a guy from Pittsfield, Kevin Donati, who is playing really good. They look great. The coach is back for his fourth season," Huss said. "It's a well-rounded team."
 
Huss said sponsorship remains steady with some new sponsors and some returning ones. The organization is also pushing its "Sunsraising" campaign in which organizations can sell tickets to raise money through a website set up by the team and a portion of the proceeds will be sent to the group.
 
"It's a no risk, all reward program where we set people up with a password and then people can buy tickets and they get a check sent for the difference," Huss said.
 
Additionally at the park, the Suns will be hosting the drum corp. competition on July 3 and a wrestling event on Aug. 26.
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