Washed out
Weather takes its toll on spring sports season
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Frustrations are growing with each game that is rained out.
It has been a difficult season for local baseball teams. An unusually wet spring has led to league schedules being backed up at rates never seen before. The local high school baseball season began in late March and some teams have only been able to play five league games thus far, leaving more league games to be played in the next two weeks than have been played over the past six.
The Sectional playoff seeding meeting is scheduled for two weeks from yesterday, meaning all remaining games must be played by May 16.
Due to the way seeding is calculated, all of the rainouts are having different affects on various teams.
Teams earn points based on who they play, earning more points for wins over larger schools and less points for wins over smaller schools. The problem lies with incomplete games.
The formula for seeding points is the total number of points earned divided by the number of scheduled league games. All unplayed games essentially count as a loss in the formula. With different teams able to complete more or less games based on weather in a particular location or the quality of the home team's field drainage, all factors aren't equal in the equation.
"There have been other seasons that were not very good (weather wise), but nothing has been this bad with this many games canceled," Silver Creek coach Mike Janisch said. "There are a lot of games to be played in a very short time period. As far as teams with a lot of league games left to play, we are the worst one I believe. Other teams have played six or seven, but we have only played five and have seven to go."
Janisch said the Black Knights have one remaining non-league game versus Westfield, but neither team knows if that game will be played due to the amount of league games that will likely take precedence.
Frank Jagoda's Dunkirk Marauders are in slightly better shape, but no team is in a position to feel comfortable with the amount of games they have left and how much time there is to play them. Add in the fact that the weather forecast the rest of the week is iffy at best and no one knows if or when they will be able to play next.
"We've only canceled one league game and a non-league against Frewsburg because they had to play a league game," Jagoda said. "The rain hasn't been cooperative. Right now our field is saturated. The infield has been holding up well and the outfield is good (due to recent renovations), but when it has rained has played a major factor."
With a backed-up schedule comes the issue of pitching depth being worn thin. Larger schools have an obvious advantage in that area, but even a school such as Dunkirk has been forced to use six pitchers in a game twice and all teams will likely be in a similar situation down the stretch. Silver Creek has multiple games per day on the horizon and other teams may be forced to do the same in order to finish their league season and not be penalized by the seeding formula.
"We are still searching for guys to step up for more than four or five outs," Jagoda said of his pitching staff. "And the rain dates aren't going to help. A lot of kids are getting experience, which may play to our advantage, hopefully.
"This was the rainiest April recorded in Buffalo. We are lucky to have gotten five games in at Myrtle Beach so we are ahead in game played, but that will likely all even out. If we get more rain like it says, we will have about five days to get in four to five games, if not more."
Jagoda added that the rain has also made it nearly impossible to map out pitching rotations. With the new pitch count rule in affect, one of the best ways to prepare for that change was thought to be planning into the future to maximize pitching staffs. unfortunately, the way the weather has been this season, coming up with a plan outside of day-to-day has been nearly impossible.
If the weather predictions hold true, the final two weeks of the high school baseball regular season will be a whirlwind of games at best and a soggy mess of frustrations at worst. All the coaches can do at this point is take it day by day as has been the case all season.