Baseball: Mustangs Washed Out Again

DOWNERS GROVE – Well, you’ve got to give them credit for trying.

Despite soggy conditions and yet more rain, Downers Grove South’s baseball team tried to play Thursday’s West Suburban Gold game against Hinsdale South, a game that has been rescheduled so many times that the original date is a distant memory.

The game was tied at 1-1 in the top of the second before it was called and rescheduled, yet again, to either Thursday or Friday of next week.

It is a familiar theme all across the area, thanks to weather that hasn’t been seen around here for 20 years, according to most long-time observers. The Mustangs (10-7 overall, 3-3 WSC Gold), for example, have played once in the past 15 days. Monday’s loss to Hinsdale South in Game 1 of the three-game series, a series that should have been wrapped up on Wednesday, April 20, will stretch until at least May 5, if not longer.

“We want to play,” Downers South senior Jake Wolf said. “It’s just been rain, rain, rain. We keep looking after school, and the game’s always cancelled. We just have to wait and hopefully it will turn around when we do play.”

The games are starting to pile up as April comes to a close, something that will begin to tax teams’ pitching reserves once a stretch of dry weather does arrive. Non-conference games are starting to get shelved all together to try to get the conference games in, and seeing five or more games scheduled in a week for the next month will not be uncommon.

Here’s how Downers South’s slate looks through next weekend: Friday is prom, thus no games scheduled, Saturday and Tuesday the Mustangs face Morton, Monday they draw Leyden and Wednesday Hinsdale South. These are all conference games.

Thursday’s crossover game at Glenbard West could be cancelled to make way for the final Hinsdale South game. Otherwise, DGS will play Glenbard West Thursday and Hinsdale South Friday. Oh, and don’t forget next Saturday’s doubleheader at Addison Trail. And that’s all contingent on there being no more wet weather, of course.

“At some point it will be tough on our arms,” DGS coach Darren Orel said. “We haven’t had a normal practice. I think that’s the issue more than anything else. When we’re not playing, we haven’t been able to do anything too normal in terms of work. We haven’t practiced on the field for 2 ½ weeks. We’ve either been playing or it’s been like this.”

In the meantime, players have been in the gym doing the work they normally do in early March, before the ground even thaws. With no live pitching to face, it’s been work in the cage and on fundamentals to keep the guys busy.

But Wolf knows that once they get back on the field, they will be ready to roll.

“It would be nice to keep playing and stay hot,” Wolf said. “You get hot once, and you can stay hot the rest of the time. You’re good to go for the rest of the year.”