Rain puts a halt to Central Section Division I baseball title. When will it resume?
Clovis High baseball coach James Patrick will have to wait several days to start his retirement.
And he’s sitting in a good spot.
Central Section officials suspended the Division I baseball game Saturday night at Beiden Field in the bottom of the fourth inning, relenting to a rainstorm that wasn’t going to let up anytime soon. Clovis leads Frontier 4-2.
The game will resume at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Clovis High, section assistant commissioner Jeff Cardoza said. The time was to be announced.
A forecast shows 90% chain of rain Tuesday, but Wednesday shows cloudy weather with a 20% chance of rain.
The Cougars are trying to send off their coach with his 10th section title.
Patrick announced that he’s retiring after 34 seasons as a coach. His record is 755-272-3 in two seasons at San Joaquin Memorial (1983-1984) and 32 at Clovis (1988-2019), according to section historian Bob Barnett.
Ian Mortenson put Clovis up 2-1 in the bottom of the first inning when he hit a two-run single. After the game was tied 2-2, the Cougars added two runs in the fourth inning, highlighted by Justin Tiger’s solo home run.
Soon after the home run, the game was delayed for several minutes before resuming until Matt Sanchez’s bat slipped out of his hands and Cardoza and the umpires decided to suspend the game.
When the game resumes, Carson Evans is on third base with Sanchez at bat with a 1-1 count with one out.
Patrick said he doesn’t mind resuming the game next week.
“Believe me, it’s worth it,” he said. “I’ll coach them a couple more days.”
This story was originally published May 18, 2019 at 8:52 PM.
