The lighting system around the baseball field at Cerritos College is a joke and doesn’t seem like it has much, if any, importance to the decision-makers on campus.

The Falcons baseball team had to postpone a game due to the lack of lighting at Kincaid Field.

No collegiate sport should have to be postponed for nine days before the game is finalized.

It can just be a simple mistake but at this moment it comes off as straight nefarious self-sabotaging.

That, along with the sprinklers being left on overnight, makes it seem like administrators have a bone to pick with the baseball team and coaching staff.

Can it just be a case of bad luck? It can; stranger things have happened.

But let’s take the game against Golden West College, for example.

It originally began on Feb. 4 and was postponed due to lack of lighting until the following Thursday.

The Falcons went on to close that story, but there is one more that remains open: the need for floodlights just beyond the fencing.

The issue has been talked about for a few years now and yet still there has been no change. Talk about a huge disappointment!

Unfortunately, it will continue to happen while nothing is done to address the problem.

One can only hope that the administration will fix the situation and the baseball team will be able to finish a game in one day, but you won’t be hearing of it happening anytime soon.

It has been two years since Talon Marks wrote a news article on the lack of lighting affecting the team in the 2018 season and nothing has changed since then.

Let us not forget about the game that had to be “rescheduled” due to the sprinkler system being on overnight and flooding the field.

Sure, it can just be a preseason game and seen as “not that important,” but it is almost fairly certain that the game was a substantial waste of time and effort from the players and the staff.

The Cerritos Falcons and the opposing teams who drive out to our school expecting to play a good game are forced to stop early because our baseball field isn’t equipped properly.

Fairly sure that it meant a lot to them, so, administration, give them the respect they need in order for them to succeed.

Let the games end when they are supposed to end.

According to facilities manager Shannon Kaveney, each coach has been asked about the need for lighting and every time they ask the incoming coaches if they were open to installing lights over Kincaid Field, they were met with an answer of “no.”

The reasoning throughout the years is simple.

Kaveney said installing the lights to the stadium built in the 60’s would open up the possibility of the field being rented out.

The coaches clearly have not wanted that through the decades.

So, who is to blame here?

Having the “balls of blame” being passed down from the administration to the coaching staff, I think it is best if we leave Kincaid Field untouched for now.

The coaching staff doesn’t want outside organizations coming to campus and, in a sense, ruining the field the Falcons play in.

According to Razorlux Lighting, professional stadium lights range from $40,000 to $70,000 per unit. Cerritos College would definitely have to pay a significant sum to add lights to both the softball and baseball field.

Right after they play, the Falcons do their part in maintaining and upkeeping the integrity of the field.

It benefits both the team and the school’s athletic department if the floodlights were installed.

The team would not have to postpone games and the incoming revenue from opening the field up for outside organizations to rent can be used to help improve other necessities around campus.

A premature ending to a game is never good. No one watches sports for cliffhangers. These games are sorry continuations of old competitions.

In nine days, players can improve or become injured, and there’s no guarantee that either team will face the same pitcher the second time. It changes the whole dynamic of the game.

Not only that, but night games are better attended and allow more flexibility for schedules.

As far as the sprinkler system mishap, Kaveney says that falls on the baseball staff itself.

He cites their unfamiliarity with the watering around campus being run by individual timers. Due to the coaching staff being new, they were simply not aware of how to program the system properly.

Thus the resulting postponement.