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  • Noah Sikes swings at a pitch during the first — and only — inning played Wednesday at the TTAB Senior Midget State Tournament. Tournaments across the region were wiped out due to showers. Jayson Larson/Athens Review

    Sikes takes a stab at a pitch

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July 28, 2010

TTAB SENIOR MIDGET STATE TOURNAMENT: Rain, rain ... go away!

Storms halt games again, force directors to extend tournament play into Saturday

Jayson Larson The Athens Review

ATHENS — In case you’re keeping score, it’s now Mother Nature 2, Senior Midget State Tournament 1.

For the second time in three days, storms forced an abrupt halt to games at the Texas Teenage Baseball Senior Midget State Tournament being played at Coleman Park.

Only one full day of tournament games has been able to be completed due to inclement weather. Now a tournament scheduled to wrap up Friday is sure to wrap up Saturday — weather permitting.

Rains washed out the first day of the tournament Monday, and more showers Tuesday postponed action and left one game with a final pitch being thrown just shy of 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Later Wednesday (after the sun came back up), more teams scheduled to play a 4 p.m. game — including the Athens Rangers — were washed out by another downpour.

According to tournament director Michael Bynum, all games scheduled for Wednesday will be played Thursday at the same times. The games in progress will pick up at 4 p.m. at the point where they ended.

The Rangers, facing the Cameron Orioles in an elimination game, had completed one full inning before the rains arrived.

“Everything is going to be moved back exactly one day,” Bynum said.

Because of Monday’s washout, the tournament was already behind a day.

“We are making that up on Friday,” Bynum said. “We’re going to have two 10 a.m. games, two noon games, two 6 p.m. games and two 8 p.m. games.”

On Saturday, the third-place game is scheduled for 9 a.m. The championship game will follow at 3 p.m., with a second game (if necessary, if the losing team in that game has only lost once) to follow at 6 p.m.

Bynum said he is thankful for the workers and volunteers who are hanging tough through an ever-changing schedule.

“I have eight kids who are 12 years old out there busting their rears and hauling kitty litter to put on the fields — and every one of them are baseball players,” Bynum said. “All our adults are volunteers, and I’m very grateful to them, too.”

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