Rain threatens to wash out summer ball season
Rain, rain, go away.
It’s a sentiment that Mark Zerrer, recreation commission director, said is shared by everybody involved with the Tonganoxie’s summer ball program.
“What we need are nice, warm, sunny days,” he said, “and we’re not getting that.”
And they aren’t getting many games in.
So far, Zerrer said, six of the seven nights of scheduled play at the Leavenworth County Fairgrounds have been rained out.
One night, on May 29, was the lone exception. That night the commission got in nine games, and that’s it for the year so far.
“We have to redo everything,” Zerrer said. “We have to call all the coaches, find umpires everything. It’s really frustrating for everyone involved.”
Zerrer said the commission would contact coaches concerning reschedule game dates at least two days in advance.
The rain has kept Zerrer and rec commission employees busy. Besides dealing with postponements, cancellations, rescheduling and all the office work that goes with rainouts; commission employees have had to deal with the physical results of all the rain as well.
And Zerrer said that though raking and applying field-drying chemicals helped get the fields in playable condition May 29, there is no guarantee that a dry and sunny day will make the fairgrounds playable.
The ground has become so saturated that it will take at least a couple of warm, sunny days to dry, Zerrer said.
Saturday was a good example. Not a cloud in the sky the entire day but the rain from the night before, falling onto already waterlogged fields, turned them into floodplains.
So all the T-ball games that day, and all hopes of getting in a few make-up games, washed away.
Zerrer said it has been five or six years since the area has had such a wet start.
“Hopefully we’ll catch up,” he said. “But if this keeps up, teams might lose some games.”
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He said that this year several teams have had games postponed three or even four times.
In the past, the cut-off point has been five postponements. After that there is a very good chance those games will be cancelled.
Zerrer said the short length of the summer ball season made this cut-off a necessity.
Summer tournaments begin in early July.
“So as soon as the sun does come out, we’re going to play a lot of games in a very short period of time.”
He said that the commission would get in as many games as it could whenever it could but that no game would be played on a Sunday.
May 29 baseball results:
Ages 7-8
Linwood 12, Slawsons 1
American Family Insurance 10, Dr. Dean’s 7
Evans Real Estate 10, Henri Lodge No. 190 7
Ages 9-10
Midwest Health Center 6, Himpel Lumber 1
Knights of Columbus 4, City Ford 3
Ages 11-12
Linwood 11, First State Bank and Trust 6
Mr. Goodcents 14, Bonner Springs 6
Ages 13-14
Basehor 10, Powerhouse Graphics 8
B&J Country Mart 10, Bonner Springs 8