SALEM, VIRGINIA - Early morning rain and scattered drizzle washed out four first-round games in the Atlantic Coast Conference baseball tournament Wednesday and put its double-elimination format in jeopardy.
The rain, and forecasts that more was coming over the next two days, prompted a 2-hour meeting Wednesday night with the ACC baseball committee and coaches, ending with hopes to preserve the double-elimination plan.
``Every coach is committed to doing that,'' said Ron Wellman, athletic director at Wake Forest and chairman of the ACC's baseball committee. He said its can only happen if the tournament gets one game in Thursday.
If no games are played Thursday, the committee and coaches will meet again, this time to agree to a single-elimination format, believed to be the first use of such a format in the tournament's 30-year history.
The tournament is being played at the home field of the Salem Avalanche of the Class A Carolina League, and Salem is due back Monday for a doubleheader. Wellman said the ACC is committed to finishing Sunday, even if it means playing five games on two consecutive days.
The decision to postpone all of Wednesday's games wasn't announced until 6 p.m., eight hours after Clemson and North Carolina were scheduled to play in the opener. A steady rain was falling at the time, but the conditions throughout most of the day were more favorable for baseball.
``Hindsight is 20-20 and I can't go there,'' Wellman said.
Two weather services advising the baseball committee had said the weather would be worse than what actually came, and the committee didn't want to compromise fairness by trying to squeeze games in, he said.
``We want to keep the tournament as balanced as we can and keep everybody in the same position,'' he said, adding it wouldn't be fair for a team to use its best pitcher in a game that then got interrupted.
With more rain forecast for the next 48 hours, Wellman said the coaches and committee would have to consider switching to a single-elimination format, possibly with a best-of-3 series for the championship.
``The decision-making process changes as you have fewer days to get the tournament in,'' he said. ``What we're doing is making decisions that we think will benefit the tournament and keep the competitiveness of it.''
Canceling the tournament completely is ``not an option that we have ever discussed,'' Wellman said, but the weather could change that, too.
``If it stops raining, we'll have a lot of baseball,'' he said.
Friday
January 31st, 2025
6:53AM
