The Districts

The District High School Baseball Tournaments began around Northwest and West Central Ohio last night....the time of the season where the pretenders and contenders are seperated. Problem is, sometimes you get very good teams in the same Sectionals...that was the case for Division 3 in this area...where you had Coldwater, Lima Central Catholic, Bluffton, St. Henry, and Riverdale, all in the same Sectional at Lima Senior...3 of those 5 teams were going to be eliminated, even though all 5 were certainly good enough to make a run to the Regional or maybe the State Tournament in early June....Coldwater and Bluffton came through, and will play today at Elida in the Semi Finals, where if successful, they would meet up Saturday in the District Championship Game...Elida is where I'll be in a few hours, working those Division 3 games at Elida for the second straight year.

Last night however, I headed to Coldwater, where without the home team in action, the Division 4 Districts began....one of the umpires was Chad Snyder out of Arlington, I worked with Chad in the Elida District and Patrick Henry Regional last season. 4 teams I am well familar with, Fort Jennings and Crestview out of the Northwest Conference, and Parkway and Minster from the MAC...the conferences split the difference last night, with Parkway knocking out Jennings 13-9, and Crestview shutting down Minster 3-0(a team that had defeated them 18-1 during the regular season) to move on to Friday's District Final. Although rain may push both Friday and Saturday finals this weekend...What else is new?

Anyway back to Elida.....

A good facility(although few can top Coldwater for atmosphere and field conditions, not to mention good lighting for night games like last night's second contest)...Liberty-Benton will take on Bluffton in the opener at 2pm, then Coldwater in a rematch with Evergreen in the 5pm game. I am scheduled to work first base in the opener, and do the plate in the second game...however it looks like that may be switched due to one of our crew running late from work, which means I would do the opener behind the plate and the Coldwater game at first base....for the scheduled Championship Game on Saturday, I will work 3rd base. Once again, rain is in the forecast, so who knows if that will get pushed back to Monday or Tuesday...Mother Nature will decide that.

I will head out about noon after taking care of some chores....

Despite the forecast of rain for Friday and Saturday, we will get through today sunny and dry. Yesterday I pulled out the lawn mower and as I did the sun finally broke through at about 3pm...for the first time since early Saturday afternoon...it has been a miserable spell, weather wise.

Mushroom Hunting___

Not so for Rick, Clint, and the gang, Mushroom Hunting in the Boyne Falls area of Northern Lower Michigan...300 miles north they are getting warm and sunny weather through the weekend, while, excluding today, we will remain, wet, cloudy, and cool....go figure?

Sad to say for the 2nd straight year I will not be joining them....but when it comes to hobbies and entertainment, if the higher ups in the State of Ohio Baseball World come calling for District and Regional Assignments, I have to answer...the money is good, but aside from that, the ego is big, and I take the games, hopefully next year, I'll get back to Michigan and the Hunt.

Back Later>>>

Photos-The Baseball Tournament Time is at hand, and I'm deeply involved...and the last Mushroom Hunt I was on...2008 in Mesick, Michigan....Rick, Clint, and the Boys, are a hour or so north of there this time around.