For the first time in 51 years, Mountain Top Little League played under the lights on Monday. League president Justin Krommes, right, watched the lights come on with George Hayden, left, whose company installed them.
                                 Ben Mandell | For Times Leader

For the first time in 51 years, Mountain Top Little League played under the lights on Monday. League president Justin Krommes, right, watched the lights come on with George Hayden, left, whose company installed them.

Ben Mandell | For Times Leader

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WRIGHT TWP. — A couple of barriers were broken at Mountain Top Little League on Monday night. The league held their first games of 2020, with one of them played under the lights for the first time in the league’s 51-year history.

“Our players have had to borrow other leagues’ fields to practice under the lights in the past,” league president Justin Krommes said. “Now we can finally do that at home.”

Having a field with lights is a luxury, and Mountain Top Little League is officially able to join the club thanks to George Hayden.

“Grants and a partnership with the Hayden Power Group made this possible,” Krommes said. “We received a grant from the state and Mr. Hayden’s company helped us and installed these lights.”

There are many benefits that come with having lights at a field, even if they are only on one of the six fields in the league.

“This will allow in the spring and the fall for us to have four additional games each week,” Krommes said. “It allows us to extend games. And for fall ball in mid-September, we used to have to travel off the mountain and now we don’t.”

The lights have been installed and ready to go now for months, but because of the coronavirus pandemic, the league had to wait until July to finally play a game.

“We have a return to play plan on our website,” Krommes said. “We have closed the bleachers, encouraged families sit six feet apart, there is sanitizer in each dugout and our volunteers work to sanitize everything after each use.”

A few hours earlier on Monday, District 16/31 Little League administrator Bob Bertoni recommended leagues suspend activities for seven days because “a number of students test(ed) positive in our districts.”

“We have a plan, and I feel like we owe it to our players and volunteers to play and to play safely,” Krommes said.