On the afternoon of April 17, while every other team in the South Puget Sound League South Division was sitting in dugouts and worrying about their batting averages and ERAs, the Decatur baseball team was making a difference.

Not with home runs or strikeouts. But by taking time out of their busy school, homework, social and practice schedules to visit sick kids at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma.

“It’s an amazing thing,” said Decatur head baseball coach Maury Kincannon. “To put smiles on the kids’ faces is just an awesome thing. It’s a good community service thing for the boys. A great thing for them.”

The Decatur baseball team, which finished the season Tuesday with a 7-9 record in the SPSL South after a loss to Puyallup, has been making the yearly trek to Mary Bridge for the past three seasons, ever since Kincannon took over the Gator program.

Kincannon sees the one-day visit to Mary Bridge as a much more important life lesson than what happens between the baselines on the Decatur High School baseball field during the spring.

“My wife has some contacts there and we made the trip the first year and it was amazing,” Kincannon said. “Some of the boys were a little uncomfortable at first. But once they go and do it, they were great. They realize how fortunate they are to be able to play baseball and it’s just a thrill to watch these boys go out and do this.”

Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital is a 72-bed facility and a state-designated level II pediatric trauma center. It’s dedicated to caring for the special health needs of children, including anything from open-heart surgery to asthma treatment to cancer care.

The yearly trips by the Decatur baseball team have become a mainstay at Mary Bridge. According to Kincannon, there was one particular boy this year who was scheduled to be released from the hospital the day the Decatur team was slated to visit Mary Bridge.

He wouldn’t leave the facility until he saw the Gators.

“This kid just loves baseball,” he said. “He told his mom that he wanted to wait to leave until the Decatur baseball team came through. The kids are very grateful for our time. It’s an honor to be a part of.”

The baseball players spent most of the year collecting donations to take to Mary Bridge during their visit. A bulk of the items collected were for the Mary Bridge staff to use for art projects for the children during their stays at the hospital — things like pens, paper, paint and paint brushes, among others.

“We contacted Mary Bridge and they usually have an art room and need donations to it,” Kincannon said. “So we put flyers up around the school and teachers and parents donated. Everybody was great about giving us stuff.”

The Decatur players also brought several baseballs and Gator hats that they handed out to the patients.

The players wore their Decatur baseball uniform tops and spent about an hour and a half at the hospital signing baseballs for patients and roaming from room to room.

Players are divided into two- or three-member teams and basically go into the rooms and talk to the kids.

“They ask them stuff like what their favorite colors are and things like that,” Kincannon said. “We just basically want to put smiles on their faces.”