SCHUYLERVILLE -- Donnie Webb spends his summers swinging a bat.

On Monday afternoon, he hit the nail on the head.

The Saratoga Phillies' right fielder was joined by more than a dozen teammates at historic Fort Hardy Park in a community service project for the Rebuilding Together Saratoga County group.

"The Saratoga Phillies contacted me last fall and said they wanted to get involved in doing something," said Michelle Larkin, founder of the locally based community organization, which has completed more than 70 projects throughout the county since its inception in 2003.

"The backstop needed to be replaced at the baseball field, so we thought it would perfect. They (the Phillies) had the day off and showed up here quarter-to-12 with sledgehammers," she said, watching the group of Saratoga ballplayers and players from the Schuylerville baseball team work rebuild the backstop of the park's largest of six baseball fields.

Phillies' pitcher Jon Spier helped raise up plywood. Outfielder Donnie Webb alternated between a hammer and a paint brush.

"This is the third project that we've done the year," said the team's first baseman, Brian Cook. "The first two we did were at elementary schools, but this really needed a face-lift. It was all rotten."

The job required 20 sheets of plywood and four gallons of paint. When it was completed a few hours later, a new backstop lined the field behind home plate, standing 8 feet high and 80 feet wide.

"I think it's nice to have community service like this. Some of things wouldn't get done otherwise," said village Mayor John Sherman, standing on the historic fields at Fort Hardy Park that border the Old Champlain Canal.

Nearby, a marker spikes the earth commemorating the ground where British Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered his forces in October 1777 on a day that marked the turning point of the American Revolution.

"Our family would go to camps with the church and work on projects in rebuilding other cities," Larkin said. "We thought, 'Wouldn't it be great to start something locally?'"

The idea was born in November 2003. And by the following April, 75 volunteers were working on five different projects.

In April of this year, 517 volunteers were working at 30 different sites throughout the county.

Projects have included putting on a new roof on a home in South Glens Falls to replacing windows and flooring in a home in Ballston Spa.

Larkin said the focus of the organization's neighbors-helping-neighbors philosophy is working with the elderly, disabled and low-income to help rebuild.

Volunteers donate their time, which vastly reduces the cost of projects. Larkin said money is raised through the help of a variety of sponsors and with fund-raising activities.