PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Brown University’s baseball players returned to their Rhode Island campus in the dead of winter primarily because there was a sliver of hope for a season. Classes were remote, the athletic facilities were restricted and they had to quarantine for two weeks when they arrived in mid-January.
Still, after last season was all but wiped out because of the coronavirus pandemic, the players were desperate to play and hoped a season might begin in early March.
Pitchers stood mattresses up in dormitories and hurled weighted balls into them — the loud bangs eliciting warning texts from a resident adviser.