March 9, 2012

The Memphis area was hit with a powerful storm causing the softball program to cancel this weekend's softball showcase. The storm, which began around the noon hour Thursday, didn't leave the area until the early morning hours of Friday. When all was said and done, the storms winds and rain wreaked havoc on the softball field, dumping better than two inches of water before dissipating.

"The field is saturated right now," Coach Wagner commented discussing his decision to cancel the event. "As a team, we had tarped the infield Thursday evening after practice; we knew we were almost certainly getting heavy rain Friday. Although we can prepare for rain, there is very little we can do about wind, and it was the wind that ended up causing us the most problems. Prior to rain fall, the field was hit with heavy, gusting winds - the winds blew the tarp completely off our infield leaving the dirt exposed to the quickly approaching storm."

"It's definitely unfortunate, the girls had a great week of practice and I believe we had a good game plan going into the weekend against three quality opponents. On top of that, Saturday was to be a fundraising event for St. Jude, it's very frustrating to have to cancel this weekend but we have to think of the safety of everyone involved," Wagner continued. "There is just no way to have the field playable for four games by Saturday; and Sunday they are calling for more rain - we had to look at the big picture."

The softball program will still be collecting funds for St. Jude prior to their final donation to the hospital and research facility the week of March 19.

Rhodes Softball is off until Thursday (March 15) and Friday (March 16) when the Lynx travel to Atlanta to play a four game set with Piedmont and LaGrange.