Expect lots of clouds, and rain, next week. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com)
The Class 3A, 4A and 5A baseball regular seasons are set to end next Tuesday. And that may be a huge issue, if the rain which is forecast for the early part of next week comes to fruition.
Monday’s forecast calls for a 75 percent chance of rain on the early evening along the Front Range, while Tuesday’s hovers around 70 percent in the morning, and 50 percent in the afternoon.
Because of this, the CHSAA office on Wednesday urged baseball teams to either push games up to Saturday, or prepare contingencies for postseason qualification.
Seeding for the 3A, 4A and 5A district tournaments is on Wednesday. As such, there is no wiggle room to reschedule games after Tuesday. So it leaves Saturday, or even Friday, as the only possibility in a sort of preemptive rescheduling should teams want to be sure they finish their schedule.
The 3A, 4A and 5A tournament fields all rely heavily upon automatic qualification, which is based on league finish. Most of the games scheduled for Monday and Tuesday are important league games, and therefore, will help determine that league finish.
Moving the seeding, and thus, the district tournaments, is not an option as it would push back the rest of the schedule for the state tournament. Those tournament dates are set in stone as facilities have been rented.
Additionally, the final date to report updates for Wild Card points is Tuesday before noon, according to the bulletin. Any game completed after that time will not be counted in the Wild Card points, which help determine at-large qualifiers, and seeding positions.
The following is an excerpt of an email sent by Bert Borgmann, CHSAA assistant commissioner who oversees baseball, to member schools:
There is a real chance this year that some leagues will be unable to finish their league schedule prior to the seeding date. Should this happen, each league must still submit their list of automatic qualifiers (in order of qualification).
It is in the best interest of each league to make the determination on how that will be accomplished now and not wait until May 5 or 6 to do so. You need to explore your “back up plans for qualifiers.”
After perusing the various weather sites this week, it appears that the Front Range is in for rain Monday and Tuesday, while it will be hit or miss at points west. This underscores the need for leagues to have their alternate qualifying plans in place.
The 3A, 4A and 5A state tournaments begin on May 15 with their respective Finals 8s. Championship games are May 23.