Criminals vandalize Eagle Pass Independent School District Softball Complex

By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Copyright 2014, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.

Unknown criminals vandalized the Eagle Pass Independent School District Softball Complex on Saturday, July 12, 2014, sometime between 1 A.M. and 8 A.M. breaking the locks of three manual water sprinkler system boxes and opening all the water sprinklers causing the four softball fields to get flooded during the early morning hours.

The Little League Texas West-Section 3 Softball Tournament is currently using the EPISD Softball Complex during July 9-13th hosting the five district sectional softball championship for two divisions, the Majors (12 Under) and the 11 Year Olds.

Texas Little League District 35 Administrator Gerald “Gerry” McCrary of Del Rio, Texas stated that he was at the EPISD Softball Complex until midnight on Friday, July 11th, because games were played on it until 11:30 P.M. and that other Little League Tournament staff were at the complex until 1 A.M. shutting down the lights and complex for the night.

A local citizen driving by the EPISD Softball Complex noticed the water sprinklers on at 8:45 A.M. and the fields flooded and promptly called the Texas West-Section 3 Tournament Director Sonny Snyder and EPISD Athletic Maintenance Director Robert Mata to notify them of the situation.

By coincidence a local EPISD Athletic Department Maintenance employee who happened to be passing by on his way to HEB noticed that the water sprinklers were on and the softball fields flooded voluntarily sprung into action and quickly turned off the three manual water sprinklers boxes, noticing that the chains and locks on these boxes had been broken and tampered with.

Little League District 35 Administrator Gerald McCrary had Little League District 35 Legal Counsel contact the Eagle Pass Police Department to report the vandalism and criminal mischief. The Eagle Pass Police Department contacted the EPISD Police Department and an incident report was filed with EPISD Police Department.

McCrary stated that Little League will request law enforcement authorities to investigate the person(s) responsible for this criminal mischief and see that they be prosecuted according to law.

McCrary stated that thanks to the City of Eagle Pass Public Works Department, the EPISD, and volunteers one of the fields is being rehabilitated so that Saturday, July 12th, scheduled two championship games are played according to schedule.