Mother Nature wreaks havoc with teams

Weather delays increase urgency for final St. Michael’s-Taos games

Two days, two doubleheaders. Well, maybe? The District 2-4A baseball race comes down to that potential scenario for the St. Michael’s Horsemen and the Taos Tigers, thanks to inclement weather. Rain, snow and wind conspired to postpone the baseball and softball doubleheaders between St. Michael’s and Taos in Taos on Thursday.

Of more importance was the baseball postponement, which pits the top two teams in the district that are separated by just one game. The doubleheader is rescheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Friday at Anaya Field (weather permitting, as always), but there is a caveat. Taos athletic director Nicki McCarty said if field conditions don’t improve by Friday morning, the game will move to Española Valley High School.

It completed a busy Thursday that saw Taos coaches try everything they could to get their field ready to no avail, then McCarty spent most of the day working with St. Michael’s Athletic Director Tom Manning and New Mexico Activities Association officials to discuss alternatives.

By 5 p.m., she was exhausted, yet still had paperwork to finish before her day ended.

“It’s been eating up the entire day,” McCarty said. “In fact, my whole day was talking with Tom, and by the last phone call, I was like, ‘I’m too tired to make any more phone calls.’ It was just nuts, really nuts.”

If it was crazy on Thursday, then Saturday might be utter chaos. Taos and St. Michael’s end the season with doubleheaders — the Tigers travel to Pojoaque Valley, while St. Michael’s entertains Las Vegas Robertson. However, the weather forecast looks ominous, putting those games in jeopardy.

The National Weather Service predicts snow showers beginning in the Santa Fe area on Fri-

day evening, and an 80 percent chance of snow showers throughout Saturday. An accumulation of 1-to-2 inches is expected.

With the weather playing such a significant factor, could it force the NMAA to postpone its seeding and selection? Dusty Young, the organization’s associate athletic director, said no decision has been made about delaying Sunday’s seeding and selection process for Classes 3A-6A. However, officials will watch how the elements affect games closely.

“They need to try and get those games in,” Young said. “If they can’t, we will decide what is next from there. Nothing has been officially pushed back, nor are we considering that. We will see what happens over the next two days and address those issues if and when we have to.”

To that end, Ruiz mentioned that St. Michael’s might work with Robertson to move the doubleheader to the Albuquerque metro area if playing in Santa Fe appears unlikely. Young said the NMAA would not get directly involved in moving games to neutral sites unless participating schools sought its help.

Still, there was a glimmer of hope that Saturday would not be a drop-dead deadline for teams. McCarty and St. Michael’s head coach Augustin Ruiz said NMAA officials indicated that if weather postpones Saturday’s doubleheaders, the organization could push back its announcement of brackets to Tuesday to afford them a chance to make up the doubleheaders on Monday.

“It would help because then I would have Jude [Mondragon, a starting pitcher who faced West Las Vegas on Tuesday] back,” Ruiz said. “Now the rest of our pitching wouldn’t be in order, but with Jude and some relievers, it could get us through that doubleheader then.”

If the season is extended to Monday, it also takes the pressure off of monitoring pitching staffs. As it stands heading into Friday’s rescheduled games, Ruiz and Tigers head coach Michael Quintana might hesitate to use relievers because of the NMAA’s pitch-count limits it instituted this season.

Pitchers who accumulate no more than 40 pitches in a day can pitch again the following day, but the 41st pitch will require them to rest one day before becoming eligible to throw again. If the weather holds off on Saturday, it could leave both squads short-handed on the hill.

Ruiz said he might let a pitcher ride out a rough start to maintain pitching flexibility for games against Robertson.

“It all depends on the situation,” Ruiz said. “If a guy is past 40 pitches, it makes no sense to bring in another guy and burn another guy.”

It’s just one more factor coaches have to account for with the regular season down to just two days.

Or four, depending on how fickle Mother Nature is.