NEWBERRY — After some summer scrutiny for canceling a string of tournaments at the last minute, Nations Park recently paid out more than $2,000 to reconcile with would-be attendees.
In early May, the 16-field facility nixed four weeks of baseball tournaments, which inadvertently stuck some out-of-towners with nonrefundable travel expenses after opening just months earlier.
Wayne Gomes, owner of Virginia Baseball Academy, had planned to take players and their families to Newberry for ball games.
But the cancellation came too late for some to change their flights.
One family booked a block of seven nonrefundable tickets to the Gainesville area in December.
So, Gomes said he contacted Nations Park management to explain the situation.
The facility sent the affected team members about $2,300 to cover the cost of transferring the plane tickets to a different tournament in another city, Gomes said.
“They were actually great about it,” he said. “They paid the bill. It was a bad situation, and they made it right.”
And the week of tournaments that did take place during the summer was virtually snag-free, said Mike Spina Jr., director of the Newberry-based Elite Pro Ball Academy.
He said the tournaments were originally canceled partially due to issues with the sprinkler system.
“I believe they have that all fixed now,” he said. “It went real smooth and ended up real well.”
Now, the field has a tournament series slated for the fall.
Spina said he plans to take all of his teams to the competition.
Joe Mulinaro, a regional manager for South Carolina-based youth tournament organizer Ripken Baseball — a competitor to Nations Park tournaments — said some teams whose appearances got canceled in Newberry switched to one of his tournaments in Myrtle Beach.
He said he didn’t buy the explanation for the tournament cancellations but did approve of the facility’s conflict resolution.
“I think they were just behind the eight ball this year,” he said. “I was happy … they helped out someone that was stuck. It turned out OK.”
A version of this story ran on page 8 on 8/23/2013 under the headline "Nations Park back in the game after hitting a summer snag"
