Standing water on the infield has postponed the state softball tournaments. (Bud Ozzello/CHSAANow.com)
AURORA — The state softball tournaments in all classes have been postponed one day to a Saturday/Sunday format.
Near-constant rain in the area of Aurora Sports Park, site of the tournaments, has left soggy fields on all three complexes. In total, the complex has received 1.4 inches of rain since Wednesday morning, with more possible through Thursday evening, according to the Weather Underground.
The result is that all fields will be unplayable on Friday, the day the tournaments were all originally scheduled to begin.
“I think everybody is disappointed because we want to play on scheduled dates, but Mother Nature is dictating to us when we can play,” said CHSAA assistant commissioner Bud Ozzello, who oversees softball. “The infield, they cannot even get equipment on it until it dries some. That doesn’t even take into account the outfield, or the parking. We want to make it the best experience we can, and we have to keep the safety of the ballplayer at the forefront. They would not be safe playing on it (Friday).”
(Bud Ozzello/CHSAANow.com)
There had been hope to play the tournament on a delay Friday, with that announcement coming on Thursday morning. However, a meeting at 4:30 p.m. Thursday at the site with CHSAA officials and Aurora Sports Park officials revealed that the Friday delay wasn’t going to be enough.
“It’s wet,” Ozzello said. “As soon as I stepped onto the infield, it just went, ‘Woosh.'”
The result of this change is that all games will move back to their original time slots. First-round games will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and the second wave of games that round will be at 12:15 p.m. The quarterfinals will be 2:30 p.m.
On Sunday, the semifinals will start at 10 a.m. The championships will be at 1:15 p.m. (Class 3A) and 1:30 p.m. (4A and 5A).
This change is in accordance with the softball weather contingency plan released on Wednesday.