On baseball and softball fields, there is no area that gets more isolated use than where the pitchers, batters, and catchers play. These areas are the only ones on the field that are involved in every single pitch over the course of a game. Because of these high-traffic areas, materials with a greater clay content compared to the rest of the infield dirt are used to maximize safety and playability where these players work.
Quite frankly, these areas take a beating over the course of a game. The goal of this post is to provide step-by-step instructions on how to repair any clay area, whether it be a mound, pitcher's circle, or home plate. While there are many effective ways to repair clay areas, I will share with you the ways that have worked the best in my experience. Following these steps will give you a great chance to have less holes in your clay areas, therefore providing a safer and more consistent surface for your players.
Tools needed
Let's start off with a few tools needed to make clay repair occur effectively. Click on any of the items below to see an example of the tool for a visual.
Small broom (such as a corn or angle broom; battery-powered blower can replace this)
Pump-up sprayer or watering can filled with water
Tamp (6x6" for around pithing rubber, 8x8", 10x10", or 12x12" for other areas)
Packing clay (moist out of the bag)
The process
Clean out the holes. Before repairing clay areas, all of the calcined clay (infield conditioner) that is covering up the holes must be cleaned out. Conditioner will prevent new clay from binding to the existing clay, meaning larger holes in the future. Typically, a large push broom is used to clear out conditioner and dust from not just the hole, but a foot or so around each of the holes to ensure you have enough area to work with. Give yourself plenty of room! When working on pitching mounds, there will be a secondary landing area where the throwing-side foot from the pitcher lands. This spot usually goes untouched, but not anymore. A small broom or battery-powered blower is then used to remove any of the conditioner that is still in the holes that could not be removed with the larger broom. IMPORTANT: Be sure to prevent sweeping conditioner on the grass surrounding the mound. If the sweeper gets too aggressive with the broom, conditioner can fly pretty far...
Scratch up holes and repeat cleaning. Using a bow rake, scratch the holes to break up any conditioner that is stuck to the existing clay. Remove material from the hole with small broom or battery-powered blower.
Remove piles of material. This is a step that many skip, but it is important. After cleaning holes out, you will have piles of conditioner, dust, and clay chunks. Many people will use a sifting scoop to remove clay chunks and save conditioner, but what about the dust and small clay chunks that fall back through? The small clay chunks will end up breaking down into dust, and then will negatively affect the moisture management on clay areas. If you have a quality clay material with conditioner overlying, shoes should not have caked dirt on them. This is an issue resulting from wet dust, and many coaches do not end up apply enough water to their clay areas simply because they are concerned about it being too sticky, i.e., dust sticking to players' cleats. Remove the dust with a poly scoop shovel (poly and not metal, because metal will dig into dirt) and eliminate sticky surfaces. The amount of conditioner you will be removing is negligible.
Apply water to cleaned areas. Moisture is essential to ensure new clay binds to existing clay. A pump-up sprayer is the recommended option over a watering can simply because it is easier to control how much water is being applied. With a watering can, you can end up soaking the holes by accident. Moisten the soil until you see a shine, but no standing water.
Scarify the surface. Using a bow rake, scratch the holes in multiple directions. This is vital so that the new clay has voids in the existing clay to bind to instead of just layering on top. When layering occurs, large sheets of clay come up at one time. After scarifying, if there is any dry clay seen add more water to moisten.
Add clay 1" at a time. Select a mound clay that works well for your level of maintenance. For most coaches, this requires a mound clay that comes moist out of the bag. Some reps may try to sell you their "best" mound clay, but many of these will come dry out of the bag. These products work best at facilities that have the time and resources to manage moisture out of the bag. Clay simply will not pack unless it is moistened. Add clay in 1" increments, pack, spray with water, scratch clay, then repeat until level with the surrounding surface. Pro tip: Wrap bottom of tamp with a used clay bag to prevent clay from sticking to the tamp. Also, conditioner will stick to the bottom of a tamp so avoid setting the tamp down on areas that have conditioner. A safe place to set the tamp is usually the pitching rubber or home plate.
Scratch down any high areas. Using a bow rake, scratch any high areas to remove them. Add the removed clay to any low areas and tamp.
Rake clay chunks with leaf rake. Make piles of clay chunks without raking up too much conditioner. Rake the conditioner over the areas that were repaired.
Pick up piles with sifting scoop. Scoop up piles of conditioner and clay chunks. Shake scoop shovel until most/all of the conditioner has fallen back through. Walk around the area while shaking the scoop shovel to better distribute conditioner.
Rake small clay chunks into piles and remove. Small clay chunks will fall through the holes of a sifting scoop shovel, so these should be raked up and removed with a poly scoop shovel. Some conditioner should come up in this process. Another goal of raking in this step is to ensure conditioner is evenly distributed around the area prior to the finishing groom.
Finishing groom. The backside of a broom for mounds or a small hand drag around home plate should be used to put a nice finish groom on the area. Either go in circles or back and forth in a home-2nd base or 1st-3rd base direction. A rake is not a great tool to use for a finish groom since rakes tend to disrupt the clay layer, leaving a number of clay chunks all over your area (wiping out what was done in steps 9 & 10).
Set up moisture. Using a field hose, water the clay areas until a heavy shine is seen. It is fine to see some standing water. The goal of this step is to put as much water as you can on the mound while still making it playable the next time you team gets on it. Start off with smaller amounts, but play with it a little bit. Toying around with your watering amounts will give you a great understanding of how much water works best at your field. The more moisture you have, the better the clay will hold up. Without standing on the clay, cover the areas with a tarp. When these areas are not in use, a tarp should be covering them to prevent drying.
Other considerations
Over time, the clay areas will get dusty from play occurring on them while dry. It is inevitable. As mentioned in step 3, dust can cause negative effects when managing moisture. It is recommended to completely broom clay areas periodically and remove all loose material on top of clay. This will also give you a chance to repair any areas that have gotten low over time. After repairing low areas, this is a great opportunity to soak the clay to aide in setting up moisture for the next day. Tarp next, then add conditioner when you are on your field the next day. A mound should take 2-3 bags of conditioner and the boxes around home plate take 1-2 bags. If clearing the whole home plate circle, 5-6 bags is usually ideal. How often you completely strip an area should depend on your dust accumulation and how much conditioner is available, but at a minimum 1x/month.
Send me emails with pictures of before and after your mound repairs so they can be featured on a future post! Keep raking!