A handful of luxuries still are needed at Kansas University’s Arrocha Ballpark, but it’s already-impressive playing surface just received what is hoped to be a final facelift.

Recently installed was a synthetic FieldTurf surface to replace the warning track and dirt surrounding the grass and infield, which already has a top-notch drainage system.

The project cost a total of $75,000 in donated funds and solves the sole on-field issue at the facility.

“The original idea behind the (old) material : we wanted a firm, hard surface so outfielders could have a definite difference between the grass and that surface,” KU coach Tracy Bunge said. “The material that was put in didn’t bind. It was very loose, basically almost a fine gravel. Very porous, but what ended up happening was it pooled in some areas, so it became sandy and beach-like.

“If a player dove into that area, they usually came up pretty scraped up.”

The new surface, a rust-colored synthetic grass padded by rubber granules, is the same material installed in a growing number of football stadiums around the country. KU is having it installed for its new practice football fields, scheduled to be ready later this year. The maintenance load, which requires a simple procedure of making sure the granules are evenly dispersed every four to eight weeks, is significantly lighter than before.

KU is the first school to have a softball playing surface where the only FieldTurf element is in place of the dirt. The infield and grass still are natural.

“This definitely is an original one on our end,” said FieldTurf director of marketing Darren Gill.

While the color of the new surface is a little off as far as matching the infield dirt at Arrocha, it certainly has advantages.

“It’s safer, and it will drain even better,” Bunge said. “What we’re going to see is the snow melt off of those areas much quicker. That area was pretty mushy. (Now) it will always be a surface we can run on and train on and not tear up the grass.

“It just helps enhance what we thought was already one of the best playing surfaces in the country. In the rainy weather we had this spring, we did not have a single rainout at home. I don’t know if you could talk to too many programs in the Midwest who could say that. We feel very good now about the surface that we have.”

The surface is in peak shape, though the project was just one item crossed off a checklist of still-needed improvements to make the ballpark more aesthetically pleasing and fan-friendly.

“We do have plans for permanent seating, a press box, locker rooms, and we’re actively fundraising and looking for donors to fund it,” associate athletics director Jim Marchiony said. “We do have plans for that.”