At this point, the baseball team should have played nine home games.
Four of those nine, however, have been rained out, including the most recent home game against Indiana State, which was scheduled for Tuesday, April 1. Only two of the four games have been rescheduled.
“I don’t think it’s a matter of home or away for us, because I’m not sure that we have a home-field advantage,” head coach Darin Hendrickson said. “The fact that we don’t get in a rhythm is the hard part. The rain that has been getting us disrupts practice, and we have a lot of work to do.”
According to the National Weather Service, the city of St. Louis set a new record this year for rainfall in the month of March: 8.4 inches. This record eclipsed the previous one, 8.25 inches, set more than a century ago in 1897. The average rainfall in March is 3.6 inches.
“It is frustrating for everybody,” Hendrickson said. “As a coach from here in the Midwest, this is expected. But I think this has been the worst ever. It is a downer. We just have to dig deep and keep plowing through it.”
The numerous rainouts have left the Billikens frustrated, but not down, junior pitcher Dave Sever said.
“It is definitely frustrating because we have been on the road for so long; it just breaks up our rhythm,” Sever said. “The only good thing about it is that it saves up some pitching for us.”
With the infield under water, the rain has affected those positions the most, Sever said. All the practice the Bills have done this season, he said, seems useless when the rain forces the team to start from the beginning again.
Instead of practicing on the field, the team resorts to batting in cages in the Bauman-Eberhardt Center. The constraints of being indoors not only affects the live pitching and fielding opportunities that practicing outdoors offers, but also the ability to practice as a team.
“Rhythm is the key,” Hendrickson said. “All the fundamental stuff that we need to work on, we can’t do. There is a lot that we haven’t been able to accomplish.”
Junior infielder Tom Pinnell said that the weather is beyond anyone’s control, something to which the team must adapt.
“We try not to get too up or down about it; you have to anticipate things like this,” Pinnell said. “I have lived in St. Louis all my life, and March on into April is always wet here.”
The Bills, who are 4-1 in home games this year, have shown that they can deliver wins on the Saint Louis University campus. They won’t have that chance against Illinois College and Indiana State, though-the two games that were not rescheduled.
“It is disheartening that the rainouts were with teams we can compete with,” Pinnell said. “People are always ready to play, and we do what we can to get ready every day.”
With both eyes on the forecast, Hendrickson said the weather looks promising for this weekend’s series against La Salle.
“It looks like the rain should clear out by morning,” Hendrickson said. “We’ll have to play on a wet field, but a lot of Midwest schools are facing the same stuff at this point in the season.”
As for the two rescheduled matches, the Bradley game scheduled for March 5 will be made up on Wednesday, April 9, and Southeast Missouri State, slated for March 4, will be played April 29.
