Here it is halfway through the month of April and there are still some teams in Southwest Washington that haven’t played a league game yet.
It’s a little odd to look at baseball teams in the Class 4A and 3A Greater St. Helens Leagues and see that every team has played eight or nine leagues games, more than halfway through a 15-game league schedule.
Then you look at 4A and 3A GSHL softball teams and see that none of the 4A GSHL softball teams have played a league game, and only some 3A GSHL teams have played one — and that’s just because of a goof.
When the original 3A GSHL softball schedule was posted, the final day of league play was slated for Wednesday, May 8. Then the coaches noticed that with the league tournament set to start on Friday, May 10, it didn’t leave a lot of room for rainout makeup games.
So most 3A GSHL teams rescheduled their May 8 games to be played sometime before spring break. Kelso and Hudson’s Bay moved their game up to last week, but weather kept that game from happening.
So on Wednesday, when the 3A GSHL schedule was originally supposed to open, Prairie and Mountain View will be tied for first at 1-0. Columbia River and Fort Vancouver are 0-1.
Wednesday’s league openers (or re-openers) in the 3A GSHL consist of Hudson’s Bay at Columbia River, Prairie at Mountain View and Kelso at Fort Vancouver.
The 4A GSHL’s schedule also has its finales on May 8. However, the 4A district tournament won’t be held until the following Monday-Tuesday, so there is time for makeups. The 4A GSHL schedule opens Wednesday with Battle Ground at Evergreen, Union at Heritage and Skyview at Camas.
One reason for the late start to league for softball teams is that the 4A and 3A GSHL softball league season consists of 10 games. Baseball teams are playing a 15-game league schedule.
The other reason is the baseball postseason is more spread out over time than softball.
For example, the 4A softball district tournament will be held May 13-14, followed by the bi-district tournament on May 17-18 and state on May 24-25.
But for 4A baseball, it starts with a district tournament on May 1-2, bi-district tournament on May 7-8 and 11, the state regional round on May 18 and the state final four on May 24-25.
Other events
TRACK AND FIELD: League duals resume this week in the 4A and 3A GSHL on Tuesday. Over the weekend, Evergreen, Hudson’s Bay, Washougal, La Center and King’s Way Christian will compete Friday at the Kalama Twilight meet (Get it? Kalama … Twilight? Actually, the meet pre-dates the movies).
Hockinson, Seton Catholic and Stevenson head to White Salmon for the Bruin Invitational, while Heritage, Union and Columbia River race at the Wilson Invitational in Portland.
Camas and Skyview will send athletes to the Oregon Relays in Eugene on Friday and Saturday.
BASEBALL: Kelso and Mountain View have to find an open date to play their postponed game for first place in the 3A GSHL. It gets a little tougher with both teams slated to play games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the final two weeks of the league schedule. One of those games this week for Kelso is a home game against third-place Columbia River on Friday.
Skyview (7-1 in the 4A GSHL) plays at Heritage (6-2) on Wednesday.
BOYS SOCCER: Camas (3-1 in the 4A GSHL) faces two key matches this week: Tuesday at home against Union (3-0-1) and Friday night at Kiggins Bowl against Skyview (3-0-1).
First-place Columbia River (4-0) plays at second-place Prairie (3-0-1) on Tuesday as the first round of league play in the 3A GSHL concludes. Then River gets a rematch with third-place Mountain View (2-1-1) Friday at McKenzie Stadium.
On Thursday, Hockinson (2-1) gets its second shot at Ridgefield (3-0) in a key 2A GSHL match.
Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep editor for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.
