NATCHEZ — Trinity Episcopal, Cathedral and Natchez High’s baseball teams all play on a well manicured, recently updated and renovated field.

The only problem is they all play at the same one, and none of them can practice on it.

While the Bulldogs have a practice field set up at the high school, the Saints and Green Wave aren’t so lucky.

Trinity practices on the field it used to play on. The old, overgrown area is a pretty good hike from the rest of the campus.

The Saints borrow the field, which is lacking in some basic amenities.

“We don’t have lights, so early in the season we battle darkness,” coach Matt Mason said. “We run track and lift weights before we go out to the field for practice, and a lot of times we run out of daylight.”

The Green Wave baseball team practices on a grassy area next to the football field.

There are no markings for a diamond, which can sometimes make for some confusing infield plays.

“We don’t get a lot of groundball work in,” coach Craig Beesley said. “The problem is the defensive aspect. We don’t get the true hops we would get (at Chester Willis Field).”

But the situation is nothing new for Cathedral, who has been practicing on campus but playing at Liberty Park for more than 30 years.

And Beesley said the outfielders and hitters don’t face the same kinds of problems.

“We actually have a pretty good setup as far as batting cages and all that,” he said. “A lot of people from other schools like the facilities we have at Cathedral. We have a lot of summer league teams that come in and are envious of the setup we have, with the batting cages right next to the field.”

But not getting to practice on the same field they play on is a bit of a hindrance to the teams.

The Natchez Recreation Council passed a measure in March to make sure the field was used only for games, although Mason said each team will get a little bit of time on Chester Willis before the playoffs start next week.

“It’s a disadvantage not practicing on the field you play on,” Mason said. “It kind of takes away home advantage.”

Added Beesley: “It kind of feels like every game we play is on the road.”

The problems have already started to form for this season’s playoff scheduling.

Both Trinity and Cathedral are supposed to host their first round games if they win their final district contests, and both first round games were to fall on Thursday.

But the two coaches worked it out to where Trinity will play Tuesday and Cathedral will play Thursday if necessary.

Natchez High’s postseason schedule is yet to be determined.

“The three area coaches work together pretty good,” Beesley said. “The only time there really is a problem is when there are rainouts, and we have to schedule makeup games. We have to make sure nothing is overlapping.”

Mason said the Saints are the only team in MPSA District 3-AA that has to share a field.

He said it causes some problems every year in scheduling because, as the last team to use the field, his is the last to schedule games.

“I’ll get Natchez High and Cathedral’s schedules, and I’ll fit mine in around that,” he said. “But that can get tough, because a lot of our opponents have already scheduled their games, and a lot of times on days that we would host there’s another game scheduled. Sometimes we have to flip our district around a little bit.”

Beesley said he doesn’t foresee a true practice field in the Green Wave’s future, but Mason has some hope.

Trinity is beginning the process of building a football practice area, and baseball could come next — although not for several years.

In the meantime, the Saints either choose to work on defense on their old field or work on hitting closer to the rest of campus — there’s too great a distance between the two to do both.

“It’s a tough setting, but we say before the season every year that we’re not going to use it as an excuse,” Mason said. “We’re going to go out and get the work done that we need to get done.”