Stewarts Creek coach Mike Barlett, with towel around his neck, walks past the flooded third-base dugout Friday night at Bradley Central High School after the sectional baseball showdown between the two squads was postponed by heavy rain. The teams will resume play in the top of first inning Saturday at 7 p.m.
photo by Larry Fleming
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – High school baseball fans at the Toby McKenzie Baseball Complex on Friday evening first saw the lightning in the distance.
Three umpires quickly huddled.
Then, they ushered players from Stewarts Creek and Bradley Central off the field. As the fast-moving rain got closer, fans scattered into the Bears’ indoor facility behind first base or to their cars in the parking lot.
Others huddled underneath a hospitality tent behind the concession stand.
They barely got to their destinations, although some didn’t, when the good old Southern frog-strangler of a storm hit, flooded the field, especially the third-base dugout where the visiting Red Hawks were trying to stay dry, and about 18 minutes later forced postponement of the Class 3A sectional game.
“We’re going to play at 7 on Saturday night and pick up where we left off,” Bears coach Travis Adams said. “We could see it coming and once the lightning started I wasn’t going to run kids out there to put a tarp on the field. It came right at us.
“I thought it might miss us, but it is what it is, just some crazy weather. There was no wind in it; just kept coming north and hit us right in the teeth.”
Stewarts Creek coach Mike Bartlett said the Red Hawks would return home in Smyrna, Tennessee, and then drive back Saturday afternoon to resume the action.
“I told Travis we’d come back whenever he says,” Bartlett said. “We’re trying to move on (in the postseason) just like him. We’ll probably have our parents drive the players back over Saturday because it was a little toasty on the bus coming over today. We got here early enough to cool off and it was nice until the rain hit.”
The teams didn’t make it out of the first inning.
The Red Hawks (20-15), who edged Bradley, 1-0, in the 2016 sectional, had taken a 1-0 lead against Bears starter Riley Black.
Sam Slaughter flied out to center, Chase Vondohlen slapped a soft single up the middle and Mac Curtis flied out to center. On a 0-1 pitch, Camden Manning hit a laser missile past first base into the right-field corner and Slaughter raced home with the game’s first run.
Brandon Rooney drew a two-out walk and with Bryson Givens coming up, play was halted at 7:11 p.m.
That’s where the game will resume Saturday, weather permitting.
Saturday's winner will advance to the state tournament in Murfreesboro starting on Tuesday.
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)