Jul 23, 2014 3 min read

When the Pony World Series added a European Zone champion a couple of years ago, its 10-team field spanned not only the United States, but all corners of the globe.

With that in mind, upgrades were needed at Lew Hays Pony Field to help officials better reach an increasingly tech-savvy world.

Through a collaboration with the city of Washington, Washington County and Comcast, World Series Tournaments Inc., the organization that funds and hosts the Pony World Series, has installed cable and wi-fi access at Lew Hays Pony Field.

Fans in attendance at the Pony World Series, which runs Aug. 8-13, will notice several improvements because of this endeavor.

Wi-fi service will be offered to fans, as will real-time live scoring via iScore. The improvements could also allow series games to be seen via live streaming video accompanied by the radio broadcast, a project on which Tournaments Inc., is currently working.

“It will enable us to have interaction with fans who are there and give those fans the opportunity to interact immediately with fans back home who couldn’t make the trip here,” said Bob Gregg, president of Tournaments Inc.

“We’ve talked for years about how we’d love to provide real-time scoring. It’s been frustrating for us that we couldn’t support our official scorer who leaves every night with four games to tally by hand. … And people around the world through iScore will be able to track the games through this collaberation as well.”

That won’t be the lone change people notice at the park this year.

According to Gregg, several themed fan appreciation nights have been planned, including a first-ever Military Appreciation Night, when current and former members of the military can receive free tickets to that day’s games.

“I’m actually embarrassed that we didn’t offer that before,” said Gregg.

In addition, entertainment will be provided on individual nights by the signing duo the Hobbs Sisters on Aug. 9, Dave Wilson on Aug. 10, fireworks Aug. 11, Scott Blasey of the Clarks on Aug. 12 and the Washington Symphony Orchestra Aug. 13.

As part of the promotion package for these events, the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency is purchasing advertising throughout the region.

“These spots are part of a comprehensive advertising and marketing campaign designed to grow local awareness, drive attendance and enable participation and support for the Pony World Series,” said J.R. Shaw, Senior VP of Tourism for the county. “You’ll see all of this rolling out really soon.”

The news wasn’t all good, however. While initial plans last month were for two games to be broadcast live on Pittsburgh’s CW, only the championship game will now be broadcast, with former Pittsburgh Pirates’ play-by-play man Lanny Frattare, now an assistant professor at Waynesburg University, handling the call. Frattare will also be working the radio broadcasts for some of the games with Mark Uriah on WJPA.

In the meantime, the 10-team field for the tournament is beginning to take shape.

The Caribbean Zone will be represented by Levittown Toa Baja from Puerto Rico, while longtime world series contender Chinese Taipei has again won the Asia-Pacific Zone.

Washington, the host team, will play Prague of the Czech Republic, which defeated a team from London in the European Zone Championship. That game will take place at 2 p.m. Aug. 9.

The winner of that game will face Los Mochis, Sinaloa, the Mexico Zone champion, at 3 p.m. Aug. 10.

The remaining five spots will be finalized at zone tournaments around the United States over the next two weeks.