ORONO – Steve Trimper considers himself a traditionalist when it comes to baseball. That includes an affection for playing on natural grass.

After putting the University of Maine baseball team through practices in the new Mahaney Dome, the Black Bears’ first-year head coach has had a change of heart.

“Our practices have been the best practices I’ve ever had,” Trimper said of the indoor sessions.

“We played 18 innings of baseball this weekend,” he explained. “We had every pitcher go through 40 pitches and they were facing hitters. We hit completely live. It’s been a very big help for us.”

As a result, Trimper is enthusiastically promoting the idea UMaine should dig up the sod at Mahaney Diamond and install Field Turf, the same artificial surface featured inside UMaine’s dome practice facility and at Husson College’s Winkin Complex in Bangor.

“My goal is to get Field Turf here sometime soon,” Trimper said optimistically.

“I have not been this gung-ho about [Field Turf] until we spent the last two weeks in the dome,” he said. “It’s a matter of efficiency, along with safety and cost effectiveness, for Northeast baseball.”

While the idea of installing Field Turf is in the developmental stages, Trimper said he has confidence interim athletic director Blake James can spearhead the project and that Black Bear supporters would back such a proposal.

The estimated cost of such a project, which would include a new feature – clay-colored turf where the infield dirt would ordinarily be – is approximately $750,000, Trimper said.

Only the home plate and pitcher’s mound areas would utilize real clay.

And since the university already has earmarked approximately $150,000 for redoing the drainage under the existing outfield surface, those funds could be utilized toward the cost of installing Field Turf.

Trimper said having artificial turf would be pivotal in attracting high-caliber teams for midweek nonleague games.

In the meantime, the Mahaney Dome is giving the Bears the opportunity to have some productive practices.

Despite the limitations of the 200×200-foot building and its relatively low ceiling, the ability to conduct scrimmages rather than rely simply on drills is a huge plus.

“The only thing we really can’t do is simulate outfield play – fly balls and relays and cutoffs and that type of stuff,” Trimper said.

The Bears even can work on skills such as sliding, which was impossible on the rubberized floor in the field house.

“The surface is natural [in texture], as natural as can be,” said Trimper, who believes the dome is having a positive impact on UMaine athletics.

He recounted how Bears football coach Jack Cosgrove recently received a commitment from a recruit whose decision was swayed by the addition of the Mahaney Dome.

“Recruiting-wise, it’s going to help,” Trimper said. “I think it’s going to help all the teams here at Maine.”

The Bears, who spent some time practicing outdoors last week, are trying to take advantage of their practices in the Mahaney Dome. There is a sense of urgency, since UMaine opens its season Feb. 24-26 with a three-game series at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, the site of their appearance in last spring’s NCAA Regional.