Rainouts might push high school baseball playoffs to Saturday

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Mother Nature is throwing a monkey wrench into the Colonial League and Lehigh Valley Conference baseball playoffs.

Two successive days of rainouts has pushed the CL and LVC semifinals to Thursday. With more rain in the forecast the next two days, there's a distinct possibility the tournaments may not begin until Saturday.

The District 11 baseball tournament is slated to get underway with first round games on Monday.

"We could play all three (games) on Saturday," said Northampton Athletic Director Mike Schneider, who's in charge of scheduling for the LVC tournament. "It looks like Sunday is going to be the best day (weather-wise), but that's the last thing we want to do."

Weather permitting, the Colonial League semifinals at Limeport feature second seeded Pen Argyl and No. 3 Salistury in the first game at 4 p.m. followed by top seeded Northern Lehigh and No. 4 Southern Lehigh at 7 p.m.

The LVC semis at Sammy Balliet Stadium in Coplay pit No. 2 Parkland vs. No. 3 Emmaus in the 4:30 p.m. opener. The second game features No. 1 Nazareth against fourth seeded Liberty with a scheduled starting time of 7 p.m.

Even if the semifinal games are played Thursday, it's questionable whether the championship games will be played on Friday.

Limeport Stadium, site of the Colonial League tournament, is also the home field for the Limeport Bulls of the Tri-County League. Limeport is scheduled to host Cetronia at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Sammy Balliet Stadium in Coplay, site of the LVC playoffs, has a Little League commitment on Friday.

To further complicate matters, Nazareth and Emmaus are having their Senior Proms on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

It's safe to say there are eight teams antsy to play some baseball.


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