Published: August 21, 2008 11:28 am      

Rain means headaches, new schedules

Ada — The rain that soaked the area early this week caused some shuffling in the schedules for three tournaments — two baseball and one softball — this weekend.

Tupelo High School athletic director and softball coach Brian Davis said his fast-pitch tournament has been moved back a day and will begin a grueling 12-hour opening-day schedule at 9 a.m. Friday. Tupelo’s baseball tournament has also been tentatively scheduled to start Friday, although Davis said a wet field is threatening to wipe out that event altogether.

First-round games at the Stonewall baseball tournament will be played this afternoon, but the first game (Colbert-Stuart, which was scheduled to start at noon) has been pushed back two hours.

“It’s not looking good at all for baseball (at Tupelo),” Davis said. “I don’t see how (Tupelo coach) Clay (Weller) can get his field dry enough to play, but he’s going to try.

“Everybody is in the same boat around here,” he added. “I’ve talked to some of the other coaches, and if we can’t play Friday, we might just try to find somewhere where some of the top Class B schools (Tupelo and tournament entrants Roff, Moss and Coleman are all expected to be among the top teams in the class this fall) can go play. We just want to play.”

Davis, whose team is coming off back-to-back fast-pitch state tournament appearances and figures to be ranked among the top four clubs in Class B when the first rankings are released, said the financial loss if the tournament is cancelled will be outweighed by the loss of games his team — and the others in the event — need to play after seeing the rest of their schedule this week washed away.

“You don’t make a lot of money on a tournament ... financially, it’s not a big deal for us,” Davis explained. “The teams in our area just need to play. What’s bad is that the fall fast-pitch season is so so short, if you miss some games there isn’t much time to make them up.”

Stonewall baseball coach Chuck Barton said the later starting time for the first round of his tournament will force one game — Silo-Calvin — to be played Friday at 2 p.m.

“The later start gives us two more hours of drying time (on the field),” Barton noted. “I’m in trouble if we get any more rain. Our field is wet, but everybody is wanting to play. We’ve been rained out all week, but if we can battle through tomorrow, I think this weekend will be beautiful.”

Today’s schedule at Stonewall has Mill Creek and Byng playing the second game at 4 p.m., with the winner to meet Calera at 6 p.m. The host Longhorns will play Kiowa at 8 p.m.

Friday’s schedule has games carded every two hourse beginning at noon, and the first game Saturday will be played at 11 a.m., with the championship scheduled for 5 p.m.