Truck leaves damage on baseball field near South Salem High School

A baseball field near South Salem High School was left with extensive damage Monday night after police say two teens rode in a truck around the field.

Images posted to Twitter by Max Price, head baseball coach at South Salem, show portions of Gilmore Field lined with dirt tracks.

Around 5:20 p.m. Monday, local dispatchers received a call from a person walking their dog by Gilmore Field, 1150 Hoyt St. S.E, who reported someone had driven a truck up and over the berm surrounding a portion of the field, Salem Police Department spokeswoman Angela Hedrick wrote in a statement Tuesday.

The caller said they saw two teen boys inside the truck, which was driving in circles on the ball field. 

Salem police officers found the two teens, both 16, with the truck, which had high centered when the driver tried to get it back over the berm. Police released the teens to the custody of their parents and referred to the Marion County Juvenile Department on charges of first-degree criminal mischief, according to Hedrick.

The Salem-Keizer School District, which owns the field, said Tuesday it had no estimate of the amount of damage caused or how long it will take to repair. 

District spokesman Aaron Harada said he was also unsure about future impacts to school athletics.

“Our facilities and maintenance team did an initial assessment of the field today and will see what can be done to get the field in playable condition by the spring,” he said.

Price said in a tweet Monday night that Gilmore Field was “absolutely thrashed.”

“Tens of thousands of dollars and tens of thousands of hours destroyed in five minutes by two teens with nothing better to do on a Monday night,” he wrote.

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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