It looked good for most of the day.
Columbia River baseball coach Stephen Donohue said he got to the field at 9 a.m. Tuesday. He worked on it all day, getting it perfect in anticipation of his team’s home game against Skyview.
Less than an hour before the scheduled first pitch, everything was dry.
“Then it hit us,” Donohue said.
It was not a sprinkle, but a downpour. It did not last long, but long enough to postpone the game eventually.
Just another day in the 3-6-0.
According to weather archives dating back to 1890, Vancouver had the second-most rainfall in the winter months of December, January, and February.
The trend has continued in March.
Through Tuesday, 18 of the 22 days have had some measurable rain. The city has already had more than twice the average rainfall for the month.
More rain is in the forecast this week, too.
That means a lot of make-up dates for baseball, softball, and tennis. Sometimes golf. And if there are thunderstorms, well, that will delay any outdoor high school event.
“It’s frustrating,” Donohue said.
When the initial blast of rain ended at Columbia River, players and coaches just enough hope that the game could be played with a little more TLC on the field. Perhaps it could start around 5 p.m., an hour late, but still time to get the game in with no lights at Columbia River.
Donohue and assistant coaches vacuumed water from the infield.
Yes. Vacuumed.
Later, the tarps came off of the pitcher’s mound and the home plate area. Players started getting warm again.
It looked good.
Then, well, you know. More rain.
The game was postponed at 5 p.m.
Skyview coach Seth Johnson said his team has been outside for five days this spring: Four games and only one full day of practice.
He said pitchers are ahead of the hitters right now, but defense is behind because of the lack of field days.
Still, there is no competitive disadvantage, he said, because all teams in the region are dealing with this.
There is no timetable for a make-up date with the Columbia River-Skyview baseball game. It’s a non-league game after all. But both coaches said it would be played. Non-league or not, it remains a great rivalry.
Not everyone was rained out Tuesday, though. The weather featured intense showers, but not rain everywhere.
That’s just life in the Northwest.
This year, though, there is a lot more of this “life” than in any lifetime of the high school athletes in Southwest Washington.
