Cody W. Pattison: Column by April showers bring May flowers (and postponements)
Apr. 13—"April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers." — Edna St. Vincent Millay
What they don't tell you about April is if you want to plant flowers you'll probably be doing that in its ever-constant showers.
April showers bring May flowers, but what they don't tell you is that the showers bring numerous postponements for baseball and softball.
Baseball and softball postponements to start the spring sports season in Lawrence County are as typical as inscrutable neighbors, oil changes and the IRS tracking you down if you didn't make the Tax Day deadline.
Some teams are dodging the raindrops, however, folks. Let's get into some odds and ends around Lawrence County WPIAL baseball and softball.
ODDS: SOMETHING YOU CAN DANCE TO
Before spring sports started, I had a schedule change for PIAA basketball coverage. The night before my day off, I went to bed at 6 a.m. and figured I'd get to sleep in.
Three hours into sleeping, my whole apartment building started shaking and rumbling. Odd mechanical sounds were coming from outside.
"Welp," I said to myself, "This is how I go out...a whole building collapsing on me. I didn't even get to plant those flowers outside Ole' Scruff's vacant unit like I wanted to. At least someone will plant them there for my final resting place, boy."
When I came to, I realized there was a large John Deere excavator tearing down the building right next to me. A small alley and one foul miscued pull of a lever was the only thing between me and immediate injury or death.
I got no sleep — needless to say — and by 4 p.m. I shrugged and retreated to the local watering hole, sick of giving myself anxiety. I kept saying while bellied up to the bar that "I always wanted a backyard. I just didn't think it would be nothing but mud."
New turf was here and I wasn't the only one getting new turf. The New Castle High softball team got a new field and so did Mohawk's softball and baseball team.
The first game I actually got to cover for the spring sports season was Tuesday at Mohawk. The baseball team had their ribbon-cutting ceremony pushed back because of schedule changes.
Mohawk coach Nick Maiorano knows how to hit a decent-sized crowd with the ole' razzle dazzle. That's no surprise considering his family helps orchestrate the Mahoningtown Community Day festival right down the road from me.
Maiorano got Caden Butch, a student at Mohawk, to play the national anthem on an electric guitar for the crowd and it gave me flashbacks of Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in '69. Butch then proceeded to play great riffs of other songs during intervals of the innings (I almost asked if he knew how to play "Into the Void" by Black Sabbath).
There should be more live music at baseball, softball outings or whatever the event entails. With my own new turf, I can see the garbage truck coming every Tuesday at 2 a.m. now so I play "Trash" by New York Dolls for them when they back up into my alley.
As of writing this, the Warriors are undefeated in section action and they are a dark horse — I believe — to take the WPIAL Class 3A title. It's only fitting that the seniors finish their story on a high note after coming so close but so far from winning WPIAL gold in football and basketball.
The other baseball team in the running for gold this season is WPIAL Class 1A Scotties. Union might not have as many wins in the section column as Mohawk right now, but make no mistake, they are not strangers to the Washington Wild Things stadium and neither am I.
ENDS: PSYCHIC SOFTBALL PREDICTIONS
I'm no softball psychic, but here goes nothing...Speaking of Mohawk, the Lady Warriors team looks poised to have a good run in the WPIAL Class 3A bracket. I predict them to have a good postseason in 2024.
The Union softball team is poised for another great season. I predict them winning the WPIAL Class 1A title for a third consecutive year and another trip to State College to capture the PIAA gold that eluded them last season.
Laurel's softball team is always in contention for gold and good postseason run. Never count the Lady Spartans out, folks. They have one — just one — Achilles' heel...the Neshannock softball team.
Neshannock captured back-to-back WPIAL gold last season and it was against local rival Laurel. The win against Laurel propelled them into entering one of the longest undefeated streaks known in the WPIAL which ended at 48-0 last season.
If you see a Laurel versus Neshannock game in the postseason on the bracket, do yourself a favor and go watch that. It's always a good show.
I believe the Lady Lancers will have a strong postseason — and a championship title or two — even though its hard to gauge the team with them having a handful of games because of those pesky postponements.
ODDS AND ENDS: COVERAGE AND COWBOY HATS
Oh postponements, they really make my life harder in terms of coverage.
I'll try to put on my white cowboy hat while I type this closer of a column up. If your job is to keep the New Castle News sports department in the loop when it comes to schedule changes please, please, please and please do so. (Thanks to those who do keep us in the loop. You know who you are.)
We're not hard to find. The office number for the sports staff is (724) 654-6651 ext. 117 and our email is: ncsports@ncnewsonline.com
We're basically a two-man team in the sports department and funneling schedule changes makes it easier for us with a simple voicemail or email the day of said changes.
I love Lawrence County baseball and softball — right hand to whatever deity you believe in — but if we're not getting postponements and schedule changes it's going to be hard to know what's going on. I also love covering Lawrence County baseball and softball, but I hate ending up at an empty ball field and the crazy part is there weren't even any April showers that day.
