Storms lead to area postponements

GLENDALE — Glendale High Athletic Director Pat Lancaster took a short walk from his classroom to the school’s baseball field Friday morning to check on the condition of the venue. He wasn’t surprised by what he saw after a steady rain pelted the area late Thursday night.

“The field was very soggy, but it looked like a river flowing down the third-base line,” Lancaster said.

That weather elements forced Lancaster — and other local school athletic directors — to make contingency plans and reschedule several outdoor events.

Glendale was scheduled to face Burbank in a Pacific League baseball contest Friday, but Lancaster said it will now be played at 3:30 p.m. Monday at Glendale.

“We played a junior varsity baseball game between Glendale and Pasadena on Thursday after it was originally scheduled to be played Tuesday,” Lancaster said. “Then we moved it to Wednesday and it rained, so we had to play it Thursday.

“The only way Friday’s game would have been played was if it had been 100 degrees.”

Glendale and Burbank were scheduled to meet in a Pacific League softball game at McCambridge Park in Burbank on Thursday, but it was called off because the Park, Recreation and Community Services Dept. would not allow the teams on the field.

Lancaster said that game will be played at 3:30 p.m. Monday at McCambridge.

“It really impacts you for next week because now you have three baseball and softball games instead of the normal two,” Lancaster said. “We’ve had to postpone some things a couple of times, but you want the field conditions to be safe.”

The rain has most affected Hoover. The Tornadoes’ baseball team had its second Pacific League baseball game postponed Friday. Hoover was set to meet Crescenta Valley on Friday night at Stengel Field, but the field conditions weren’t sufficient, forcing the game to be shifted to 5 p.m. Monday at the same location.

Hoover must also make up a league road game against Burbank after the teams had been set to play Tuesday at Burbank. An earlier storm left the field wet and the teams haven’t rescheduled a makeup date, Hoover Athletic Director Jack Van Patten said.

Van Patten said a league softball contest between Burbank and Hoover, which was to have taken place last Tuesday, will still need to be made up.

“[Hoover softball Coach] Rich Henning has worked hard on the field to make it playable,” Van Patten said. “With baseball, it comes down to a lot of things, from organizing your pitching rotation to school work to the uncertainty as to when the games will be played.

“All of the school districts in our league have different spring breaks,” Van Patten said. “We go on ours after next week, so it will make things interesting as to when we can make these games up.”

Mendoza, who serves as Crescenta Valley’s boys’ athletic director and the baseball team’s third base coach, said Crescenta Valley Coach Phil Torres spent part of Friday working on the infield at Stengel Field. However, the water from the outfield kept leaking on to the infield.

“There was just a lack of sun and wind to make the field drier,” Mendoza said. “The outfield water kept running on to the infield.

“You can only play three league games in one week and you should try to play the next possible open day.”

At Flintridge Prep, the school’s softball team had a nonleague game on Tuesday against Santa Clarita Christian and a Prep League game against Webb on Thursday cancelled.

Flintridge Prep Athletic Director Alex Rivera said neither game would be rescheduled.

“The Santa Clarita Christian game will not be made up because it was a nonleague game and the Webb game will also not be played because the schools couldn’t come up with another makeup date,” Rivera said. “Webb had to forfeit because they are on spring break in a couple of weeks and won’t have enough players [to field a team] and we are on spring break next week.”

Flintridge Prep’s baseball team was set to face Webb in a league home game at the Glendale Sports Complex on Thursday. However, the teams instead played at Webb for the second time this week.

Rivera said a nonleague boys’ tennis match between Flintridge Prep and neighbor St. Francis at the Fremont Tennis Center on Wednesday was cancelled after rain began to fall minutes before the contest was set to begin. Rivera said the match also would be rescheduled.

Holy Family and Providence were set to meet in a nonleague softball game at Olive Park on Thursday, but the Park, Recreation and Community Services Dept. would not allow the teams on the soggy field.

Holy Family Athletic Director Ernest Siy said it wasn’t clear if the game would be rescheduled.

The poor weather also forced Glendale Community College’s men’s and women’s tennis teams to reschedule Thursday’s Western State Conference matches against Bakersfield College. The men’s team was set to travel to Bakersfield, while the women’s team was set to meet visiting Bakersfield.

All conference teams have two built-in rain dates in case a match needs to be called off because of inclement weather, Glendale college’s men’s Coach Bob MacKay said.

Those matches will now be played April 7 at the same locations.

“When you have a rain date on your schedule, you can’t schedule anything,” Mackay said. “The rain dates are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are the days our matches are played.

“Those are to be blank days and you can’t play conference matches Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays. In my nine years at GCC, we’ve probably only had to use the rain dates a couple of times. You can see why those rain dates are critical.”