Weather hampering schedule> High school baseball, softball teams scramble

The Ashland baseball team broke a 10-game losing streak with a 12-0 victory over Hodgdon Saturday. But the greatest achievement for the Hornets wasn’t so much that they won, but that they finished the game – their fifth in five days.

In a rain-drenched season when rescheduling games has been a weekly chore, playing games at a rapid-fire pace has become necessary for baseball and softball teams to finish their respective seasons.

While teams in different parts of eastern Maine have had better luck than some in spreading their rescheduled games out, many coaches agree the weather this season has made it more difficult than in past years.

“I don’t think anyone coaching baseball and softball has been fortunate this season,” said Orono baseball coach Leo Pelleriti. “The weather has played havoc with the schedule. This has been one of the worst seasons in a long time.”

Ashland ended up playing one-third of its 15-game schedule in five days last week when a three-game week turned into a marathon because of rain… and snow.

“Last Monday, our field was covered with snow,” Ashland coach Bill Nemer said. “We still have to contend with snow in Aroostook. There’s no question that the weather has been worse this year than other seasons.”

Nemer said when schools spend money to bus teams to games that are hours away, as they often do in Aroostook County, the athletes have to play, regardless of the weather.

“We’ve played games when it’s been raining hard,” Nemer said. “One game against [Central Aroostook] went into extra innings and lasted three hours. Those games don’t mean anything to the kids. They don’t get anything out of it.”

Hampden is another team that has suffered playing five games in four days two different weeks.

Other teams have not had it as bad, but the coaches of such teams point out the season isn’t over yet.

The Stearns softball team, now 10-3, had to suffer through one three-game stretch because of postponements. Because Stearns had to make up just one game and has three games left, coach Jerry Burleigh feels his team has been lucky – so far.

“We’re right on schedule,” Burleigh said. “I know a lot of people are backing up now. It really affects baseball more than softball with the pitching rule.”

The Brewer baseball team also has had good fortune, having to reschedule only one game.

But the truth is the Witches smooth-running season is the result of hard work. If it rains the night before a Brewer game, Hewes said he and Brewer Athletic Director Dennis Kiah work with janitors to dry the fields.

“We set sponges down in the puddles and wring them out in a bucket,” Hewes said. “It takes us a while. The other day it took four hours.”

And only once have the 8-4 Red Riots had to play three games in a row and four in one week because rained pushed games back, and they fared better than Pelleriti hoped – winning three of the four. But with three solid pitchers, Pelleriti said he’s luckier than most.

Yet even the pitching-rich Pelleriti is wary his luck will run out.

“You have to play on the first available makeup day,” Pelleriti said. “If you wait and say, `Let’s play Saturday,’ it could rain. If it keeps backing up, the noose gets tighter and tighter.”