Sometimes things fail to go according to plan.

The upsets I picked in March Madness were not executed like I thought they would — some teams lost by one measly point — and the weather rained on the hopes and aspirations of all baseball and softball players in the area. More specifically in the life of yours truly, the heavy precipitation this week canceled one planned day of work after another. Trained to be a planner by nature, my mother drilled it into my head as a child that if you don’t plan and prepare, you’re less likely to get the job done. Well mom, you failed to mention this does not apply when scheduling baseball and softball games to cover during the week.

Truly, you can’t feel my struggle until you have just about every game and tournament cancelled for three consecutive weeks. And then, when games are played, the contests are immensely sloppy because of the limited practice and play time.

This past week has been the perfect example.

I drove out to Liberty Park Tuesday, enthused as ever, because finally I was going to get to sit down for a game between two good local clubs. Franklin County made the trip to play Cathedral, and Quinton Logan was getting the start for the Green Wave on the mound. Logan struggled, visibly missing the strike zone continuously. You can chalk that up to a number of factors with this being Cathedral’s first home game and the fact that both schools drew a really nice crowd. Nerves factored in, but the multiple walks, along with the all-around slow pace kept me in my seat for three long hours. Don’t tell anyone, but I may have been doing a little research for my March Madness bracket during some of the mound visits. Not that it helped of course. Though Cathedral won 8-5, Craig Beesley was about as irate as I’ve ever seen him after the game, furious that his team failed to take care of the details before, during and after the game. I think he was most peeved that Cathedral was involved in a, dare I say, boring encounter.

Then Wednesday came. Because we’ve had so many rainouts, I made the trip to Vidalia in the rain to watch the Lady Vikings host Marksville, and stood by trying to get a few shots with my brand new iPhone under the heavy rain clouds. Vidalia performed well, finishing off a younger, weaker Marksville team 15-1. Despite it being a blowout, this is the one instance where I at least got what I was somewhat expecting, and sadly, this blowout would become the highlight of my week.

Because then Thursday happened, and the amount of misses on my bracket, well, let’s just say I didn’t do great and move on.

Friday pitted the first district game for a Natchez High baseball team that despite some blowout losses looked to be heading in the right direction. When I arrived at Liberty Park again, I talked to Natchez coach Dan Smith before the game to find out that two of his better players — Shavoke Herrington and Chris Scott — would not be playing for the Bulldogs that evening. He smiled and said he was hoping for the best. I smiled back, saying to myself, “My track record this week spells disaster for you tonight.” I definitely brought the bad luck with me as Natchez fell 20-0 to Pearl River Central. I won’t mention any names but one person in the press box certainly got a chuckle out of me when the Bulldogs went down 15-0.

“Time to break out the gospel music.”

Not a bad idea at this point.

The tapping of rain on my window woke me up Saturday morning, and I just knew it was God standing outside saying, “I’m afraid I’ve got some more bad news.”

But I was prepared. I had four to five options to cover that day, but it rained hard enough to cancel every tournament and every game in the area.

You have to laugh at bad circumstances. Even when times are frustrating, I believe life is all about adversity and finding a way to cope with reality.

That reality is we have some good baseball and softball teams in the area. I look forward to the weather that allows us to watch them.

 

JAKE MARTIN is the sports editor for The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or jake.martin@natchezdemocrat.com.