Early rainstorm causes havok on baseball, softball tournaments

A full slate of baseball and softball games were scheduled to play all day on Friday at Yuma Catholic.

The weather, however, decided to make things complicated.

An early morning rain storm washed out the scheduled games on Friday and has forced Yuma Catholic to adjust its tournaments.

“It's a headache for people helping us out,” Yuma Catholic athletic director Rhett Stallworth said. “We got to track down umpires and getting the fields ready to play. It's not easy.”

For the Shamrock Baseball Classic, a championship was originally scheduled for the top teams in each pool today, but instead, the teams will play their games that were planned for Friday.

Yuma Catholic faces Yuma High at 8 a.m. and Holtville at 10 a.m., San Luis faces Palo Verde at noon and Calexico at 4 p.m., Kofa takes on El Centro-Central at 2 p.m. and Palo Verde at 4 p.m., and Antelope plays Yuma High at noon and Northwest Christian at 2 p.m.

“We wanted to play a tournament but Mother Nature had other ideas,” Yuma Catholic coach Curt Foppe said.

Palo Verde vs. Central and Antelope vs. Holtville, both games that were previous scheduled for this morning, were played Friday afternoon when the weather cleared up.

The softball tournament is scheduled to play the two guaranteed games and have a championship and third-place game at 4:45 p.m. As far as the guaranteed games go, Yuma Catholic faces La Jolla at 8 a.m. and Calexico at 11:30 a.m., San Luis plays Calexico at 8 a.m. and El Centro at 11:30 a.m., and Antelope takes on Parker at 9:45 a.m. and Scottsdale Christian at 1:15 p.m.

“It's unfortunate. It's bad timing,” Yuma Catholic coach Alyssa Rhodes said. “We'd rather play two (Friday) and one (today), but it's a learning experience for my girls.”

The Cibola softball team was also washed out in its tournament at Xavier — which will be made up today on a field with artificial turf against Centennial at 9 a.m. and Desert Ridge at 12:40 p.m.

“You got to roll with the punches,” Cibola coach Shelly Baumann said about the shortened tournament. “It would have been great to play five games but at least we'll get three.”

Prep sports weren't the only thing affected by the rain, however.

The Arizona Western softball team's trip to Central Arizona for a doubleheader today was put on hold because of the stormy weather. A rescheduled date was not available.

The Matador baseball team is still planning on playing their doubleheader against Glendale at home at noon today.