WILLIAMSTON — Heading into the Tarheel League District 7 8U, 10U, 12U and 14U All-Stars tournament the big concern was what kind of affect the heat would have on game play, but on Monday Mother Nature threw tournament director Steve Barnes and his staff a curve as heavy rain accompanied by severe lightning and booming thunder forced the tourney to take a timeout.
The games were scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. at Kehukee Park in Williamston but it was about that time the sky began to darken and rain began to fall. After an hour-and-a-half of steady rain and increasing lightning Barnes decided it was in the best interest of everybody involved to call it a day.
“I knew the fields were dry (heading into Monday), but the lightning was the main concern,” Barnes said. “We kept waiting to see what the radar was saying. It was clear, then all of a sudden we had a big cluster on the radar.”
After a brief let up, the rain came down ever harder and once that happened the playing fields became unplayable.
“I went out and looked at the fields tonight and there was nothing we could do even if it had stopped raining right then,” Barnes said. “I went out there with league president Gary Manning and looked at the fields and just said, ‘We’re done.’ There was no way we could play.”
If the weather permits, the tournament will resume today and will follow Monday’s schedule. Barnes said for every day that gets washed out another day will be likely be added to the tourney schedule.
“I have looked the weather for (today) and it looks like we will have rain again,” Barnes said. “I’m already planning on looking at adding Saturday and Sunday to try and finish this thing up.”
Monday’s weather was a far cry from Sunday’s when the tourney had a fantastic second day as the heat cooled down and led to a great day to play ball.
In the 8U division Williamston (1-0) topped Ahoskie (0-1), Edenton (1-0) beat Bath (0-1), Belhaven (1-1) eliminated West Martin National (0-2) and West Martin (1-1) bounced Cashie (0-2).
In the 10U division Williamston improved to 2-0 after beating Jamesville (1-1). Belhaven also improved to 2-0 as it topped Plymouth (0-1). Ahoskie (1-1) eliminated Washington 9U (0-2), while Washington 10U took out Chocowinity (0-2).
In the 12U classification Plymouth upped its record to 2-0 with a win over Ahoskie, while Edenton (2-0) kept its perfect record intact by topping West Martin. Washington (1-1) eliminated Bath (0-2), while Chocowinity (0-2) was knocked out by Jamesville (1-1).
In the 14U Division Ahoskie was the first to win a title and advance as it topped Chocowinity in the title game.