By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
The start of the District 32-6A baseball season will have to wait.
Metro-area teams were forced to postpone opening district games Tuesday due to flooding on fields because of heavy rains. Games were postponed until Thursday, and coaches hoped that would be enough time.
Hanna coach Eddie Garcia said he would be working diligently just to get the field ready by then.
“We’re just trying to get the water off the field,” he said. “Trying to get it ready to play.”
The delay has put a damper on the start of district play and could effect teams physically.
Brownsville Veterans Memorial coach Joey Benavides was concerned for his pitchers’ arms. The Chargers coach said the team would be limited if they had to play a few games in a short period.
Los Fresnos coach Rene Morales said the delay affects the whole team.
“We try to prepare for the next day, and we get some more rain,” he said. “So we’re preparing like we’re playing the next day. That’s the only thing we can do.”
Teams have been limited to what they can work on indoors, mostly working on fundamentals, hitting off tees and other such drills to stay sharp.
Most coaches expressed getting this week’s district games in even if a game was moved to Saturday, and especially not playing three district games next week.
Unfortunately, some teams are scheduled for non-district games or are playing in one of the final two tournaments of the year scheduled to begin today or Friday. Those contests maybe shortened to accommodate the district matchups.
“The district games,” Morales said. “That’s all that matters.”
The four 32-6A games rescheduled start at 7 p.m. tonight are Rivera at Harlingen High, San Benito at Hanna, Brownsville Veterans at Harlingen South, and Lopez at Los Fresnos.
NON-DISTRICT FINALE
There are four games and two tournaments scheduled to finish the non-district part of the schedule.
The Harlingen Tournament and the Mission Veterans Memorial tournament were both scheduled to start today. The Harlingen Tournament will not start until Friday because of the changes to the District 32-6A schedule.
In other non-district games, Rivera travels to Rio Hondo, St. Joseph heads across town to face Lopez, Los Fresnos hits the road to match up with Donna High and Sharyland Pioneer plays host to Donna North on Friday.
Each of the those contests could be effected if district games need to be rescheduled once again.
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.