Saints battle the weather

By PETER HILLS

Rain is an inevitable feature here in the Pacific Northwest, and for the men’s baseball team, when their games are rained out, it turns their playing schedule into a smorgasbord.

Last Saturday’s games against SWOCC were rescheduled to Thursday, and Tuesday’s games against Lane were moved to April 20. Thursday they were scheduled to host the George Fox JV team, but it was rescheduled to a later date.

Head coach Gabe Sandy is never flustered by games being rescheduled due to rain. “You definitely know that (rain outs) are a part of the game. You might run into some weather and some games might get backed up. You plan for it in the way you practice and prepare. I tell my guys: you know we’re going to get backed up, and the rain looks like it’s coming in. We might not be playing for awhile, so we have to stay sharp for what we’re doing in practice.”

Whenever a baseball game is rained out, the team will usually practice indoors.

“We increase the intensity amongst ourselves in practice so we can stay competitive, and try not to get too rusty with the rain layoff. We have outstanding indoor facilities, so we can still really get a great workout indoors, as far as a baseball program goes. It’s part of the reason we stay successful when the rain does come,” said Sandy.

After the unexpected week layoff, the team finally got a shot against SWOCC Thursday. Results for the games were unavailable at press time.

Sandy said, prior to the match-up, “They are a lot better than they have been in the past. I know they’re scrappy and I’m not going to let them sneak up on us. I’m sure they’re going to be coming in and ready to get after us. Being that we are the defending Southern Division champs, we do have that bullseye, and everybody always gets up and gives us their best.”

Going a week without playing a game can get the team worked up. “We’re itching to play, all of us, the coaches, the players, everybody involved. We’re missing playing. It’s been a week since we played and these guys are student athletes playing college baseball. I’m a part time instructor who’s the head baseball coach. So when you take that away from us, we get a little cranky and irritated because we miss doing what we love, and that’s competing in the sport of baseball,” said Sandy.

Mt. Hood still leads the Southern Region with a 4-2 record. Even though Chemeketa has more wins, 6-4, they lost two games when Mt. Hood got rained out. The Saints will take on Chemeketa Saturday in Salem.

“Chemeketa is one of the better clubs in the league. Them and Lane are the two teams to beat, I would say, for the championship run,” said Sandy.

It’s going to be a tough playing schedule for the next two weeks because now, after playing Thursday the Saints play Saturday, Tuesday, next Thursday and next Saturday. “You’ve got to have that pitching depth. When you get backed up with rain, I think the teams that have pitching depth are the ones that gain an advantage, and those that aren’t so deep with their pitching staff are at a disadvantage,” said Sandy.

“I feel like we have that pitching depth, but we haven’t had that tested just yet. But this next two weeks we will. I think everybody involved is looking forward to that test, throwing these guys out there and let some other guys go out there and get a chance to pitch some big innings for us, and come up with some big wins.”

Sandy added, “We have 10 quality guys on our pitching staff and I’m really anxious for these guys to get out there and prove it to everybody.”