Storms postpone area games

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, April 5, 2011

St. Aloysius’ Neal Ricks attempts to stop Cathedral’s Colton Webb during their game Thursday evening at Chester Willis Field in Natchez. Cathedral’s Monday night game against Franklin County was postponed due to inclement weather. (Eric J. Shelton \ The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — The threat for severe thunderstorms and heavy rain ahead of a strong cold front Monday afternoon forced many local and area high school baseball and softball games to be postponed.

Cathedral School’s Monday night matchup with Franklin County High School was postponed, Cathedral baseball coach Craig Beesley said after speaking with the Franklin County coaching staff.

“They didn’t want to have to drive back through the high winds and stuff,” Beesley said. “We’re waiting to see if they get their district game in (today), and if they do, we’ll try to play Wednesday or Thursday.”

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Beesley said the decision to postpone was disappointing to him and his team.

“We wanted to get back on the field and play after our performance Saturday (a 9-1 loss against Natchez High),” Beesley said. “We wanted to see if we could redeem ourselves, but we’re fighting the weather right now.”

Trinity Episcopal’s varsity game at Brookhaven Academy, which was scheduled to take place at 6 p.m. Monday, is postponed.

“It might be (rescheduled for a later date). It depends on the weather,” Saints head coach Mitch Ashmore said.

Vidalia’s softball team was to host Avoyelles for a District 3-3A game, but that game was postponed until today with the varsity game to start at 4:30 p.m. However, Lady Vikings head coach Gary Parnham said he doesn’t know if the junior varsity game will follow the completion of the varsity game.

“We’re anticipating the weather coming in today,” Parnham said.

For the second time in less than a week, Franklin County’s fast-pitch softball home game against Division 7-3A opponent Tylertown has been postponed.

“With the weather, the safest thing to do was to postpone it,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Dana Smith said.

Smith added that she doesn’t know when the completion of the now twice-suspended game, which is tied at 5-5 with one on and one out in the bottom of the third inning, will resume play. Franklin County plays host to Brookhaven today with the JV game at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity game at 7 p.m.

Block’s baseball and softball teams were scheduled to travel to Montgomery to take on the Tigers and Lady Tigers, respectively, in District 3-1A action. But a couple of lines of strong thunderstorms have postponed those games. Both the baseball and softball games have been rescheduled for at 4 p.m. today.

Adams County Christian School head coach Hunter McKeivier said the ACCS baseball field should withstand the water from the storms enough for it to host Central Private School this evening.

“We’ve gone ahead and tarped home plate and the pitcher’s mound, so we’re ready to go,” McKeivier said.

“Our field soaks thinks up nicely. We still have one or two spots that hold water in the infield. The bad part is our field is in a second-tier spot, where water flows down from the football field, but this year the field’s done a nice job (with rain).”