It’s been quite an adventure for the entire Expedition League to get to this point, and Sodbusters’ co-owner and general manager Scott Galusha was along for the ride. For a while, it wasn’t known if there would even be a 2020 season.

“The easy decision would have been let’s pack it up and do this again in 2021,” Galusha said. “As we continued to look at the community as a whole, we sent out a questionnaire to our fans and we were hoping to get a few responses. Well we got a little over 200 responses, and just unbelievably overwhelming. People wanted to do everything they could to come to a baseball game.”

But things will look different when the Sodbusters take the field against Fremont for that opener on June 26. The crowd will definitely be smaller.

As regulations now stand, there will only be 25 % of the 1,346 capacity allowed in the stands. After the five games in June, that could change. The health department might up that percentage to 50 percent or more in July.

“We have to abide by all the parameters that are currently set, which currently the capacity is 1,346,” Galusha said. “As it stands today, we’d only be looking at 326 or 327 people.”

Galusha said that number of fans would make it nearly impossible for the team to survive.

“If we can only had 326 people in the park night in and night out, we won’t be able to make it,” Galusha said.

But there will be concessions available, including pop and alcoholic beverages.

“Right now we know that our snack bar will be open,” Galusha said. “We are waiting to hear from the powers that be with what recommendations they have. We do know they are going to cut the menu down, but we think there will be plenty of options for our customers to enjoy.”

It will be a smaller Expedition League this season. Only six of the 10 teams will take part in 2020.

The Badlands Big Sticks, the Pierre Trapers and the Souris Valley Sabre Dogs will make up one division. The Sodbusters, the Fremont Moo and the Western Nebraska Pioneers will make up the other.

The two division winners will meet Aug. 21-23 in a best-of-three championship series.

The Spearfish Sasquatch, Wheat City Whiskey Jacks, Casper Horseheads and Sioux Falls Sunfish are unable to play in the league this season.

With just six teams in the league, the Sodbusters will be playing numerous teams multiple times. Most of the Sodbusters games will be against Fremont and Western Nebraska. The league decided to load up on divisional games to cut down on travel costs and make it easier on the players, who have about three off days during the season.

The Sodbusters will only make one trip outside of the state, and they won’t play Badlands during the regular season. They play 15 games against Fremont and 21 Western Nebraska. That makes up a large percentage of the 52-game regular season.

“In a normal year, people might not like the fact that we play the same two teams so much,” Galusha said. “But this year, we don’t think people will care.”

Galusha said it was important for the city of Hastings to get baseball going this summer.

“We felt as a staff that we got to give people something to do, and we have to help these kids out,” Galusha said. “I can’t tell you how happy I am with our roster. I love the local flare that we have. These kids all lost a whole bunch of opportunities to play, and I felt like it was my job to give the people what they want, which is baseball at beautiful Duncan Field, and to give these kids an opportunity to do what they love that they’d missed out on.

“I just didn’t think I could smile in the mirror and be happy without doing everything I could to make this happen”

That local flare includes players like Trey Kissack (Nebraska) and Shay Schanaman (Nebraska) from Grand Island and Trey Asher (Missouri Western) and Sam Wibbels (Kentucky) from Hastings. All four will pitch for the Sodbusters.

But there will be baseball, and Galusha is thankful for that.

“Our staff has worked tremendously hard to try and make this happen, and our sponsors have been unbelievably supportive as well,” Galusha said. “So we’re going to make a run at this and we’re excited that we are about two weeks away from live baseball.”