Ball Teams Deal with Rainouts

Football and soccer play rain or shine in the fall. Winter sports such as basketball and wrestling take place indoors. But with the WPIAL baseball and softball seasons taking place in the soggy spring season, weather can deeply impact the flow of the season.

That’s the case this season, as the WPIAL has seen more postponed games due to weather than any year in recent memory. And according to Chartiers Valley baseball coach Jim Jaskowski, it isn’t just losing the games that affect the teams.

“This season has been the most frustrating year I’ve faced as a coach or player,” he said. “It’s not so much the games you lose, it’s the practices you lose. You never have a chance to practice on a field because if the field is playable, you’re playing. That’s been a big issue. It’s a day-to-day thing, and it’s hard.”

The end of the season has been pushed back to May 11 because of the extreme amount of rainouts, and the non-section part of the season has essentially been canceled. This becomes an issue come playoff time, as many coaches use the non-section season to challenge their teams.

And while there are many issues need to be resolved in order to have spring seasons run as smoothly as others, Chartiers Valley softball coach Jeff Macek thinks a full-proof solution may be hard to discover.

“I think the WPIAL has already gotten better, because we only play each team in the section twice now rather than three times,” Macek said. “It’s just hard because of the climate. We aren’t able to start any earlier, so the only thing I can think of is having all games as doubleheaders. But that would really only work for softball, not baseball too.”

Jaskowski has a couple of ideas of his own on how to improve the situation.

“I would push the season back and start it two weeks later,” Jaskowski said. “I would also look for a place, whether it be the (Washington) Wild Things field or Washington & Jefferson, where you could get a lot of time and play a couple games a day. We need central places for teams to go to play.”

Despite the inconvenience of rescheduled games, both Chartiers Valley teams have put themselves in a position to win a section title. Through nine Section 3-AAA games, the baseball team is tied with Montour and Thomas Jefferson for the section lead, while the girls are tied with Montour in Section 2-AAA.