More prep weather woes

By Bart Isley

Published: June 5, 2008

It appears that Albemarle’s baseball team isn’t the only squad that came out on the short end of Mother Nature’s stick.

Charlottesville’s girls soccer team’s state quarterfinal battle with Courtland was called a 1-0 Courtland victory after a thunderstorm delay of nearly three hours. There were 38 minutes left on the clock when the game was delayed, but those 38 minutes won’t ever be played.

Still, neither story may actually be this spring’s most frustrating weather-related casualty in VHSL state tournament play. Colonial Forge’s opponent, Cosby, certainly has a tale that will contend for that title.

The Eagles and Cosby locked up in the state quarterfinals Wednesday and Forge jumped out to a 3-1 lead through five innings. Cosby appeared ready to rally in the sixth when Bradley Shaban ripped a Colin McManus pitch in the sixth for a solo home run to cut the lead to 3-2. The Titans’ Dustin Sollars and Tad Bower then connected on back-to-back singles, putting the tying run on second base with no outs.

Enter the rain, sending the teams off the field. The umpires called the contest after a two hour and 13 minute rain delay, with the game reverting to the previous inning’s 3-1 final.

“I felt like we were in the right groove, things were going to come around and we were going to win the ballgame,” Cosby coach Tim Lowery told the Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg). “There’s nothing you can do about it. Those are the rules and you have to live by them.”

Sounds a lot like Albemarle coach Carroll Bickers’ lament. Then again, Lowery knew the result before he left the field. Bickers and the Patriots weren’t nearly as lucky, but all three teams, surely, share the same level of heartbreak.

Knights’ Gunter wraps up season in Region B final

Buckingham County senior Casey Gunter fell 6-1, 6-1 to Buffalo Gap junior Rachel Coon in the Region B final, but not before Gunter put together an impressive final season for the Knights.

Gunter romped through the James River district undefeated en route to a district title. She’ll head for Liberty University in the fall.