- April 19, 2024
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Spruce Creek’s baseball team was oh-so-close to advancing to the 9A Regional Championship. The Hawks had Lake Mary in their sights — until Mother Nature took over.
Lake Mary led the Hawks 3-2 after five innings on Thursday, May 17. Then, the rain started to fall. After an hour, officials ruled the field unplayable.
Here’s the tricky part, though: The game, which was initially supposed to be played on Tuesday, May 15, wasn’t postponed. Lake Mary was declared the winner. According to Article 4-2-4 of the Florida High School Athletic Association’s baseball manual, “a game that has been called because of weather, mechanical failure or other conditions after 4 1/2 innings or five innings have been completed will be declared a completed game.”
According to Article 4-5-1, the decision of the official is final, and no protests are allowed.
But is this right?
Do kids and coaches who have worked so hard all year, who have done everything necessary to get this far in the postseason, deserve to have their season end because the weather won’t cooperate? Maybe I’m breaking Article 4-5-1, but I protest: I believe high school teams should be afforded, under almost any circumstance, a complete game to determine if they win or lose.
Obviously, figuring out the scheduling of the upcoming games becomes the next hurdle, but don’t teams deserve that?
The season is too long, too hard and too stressful for it to end because there’s too much water on the field.
Simply put, it’s not fair to the coaches, athletes or fans.
