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The snowstorm that besieged the University of Maine last Thursday was a blessing for students who skipped assignments or needed a day to sleep in and miss a few classes.
For the Black Bears softball team, though, it was an utter disaster that has wreaked havoc on the squad’s bid for a second straight America East regular season title.
With Kessock Field covered in snow, league rules forced UMaine to travel to Stony Brook for what should have been a home series last weekend. Yesterday, the alarming trend continued with the Black Bears facing Boston University in a doubleheader that was originally scheduled for Orono but had to be moved due to the inclement weather.
So far, the Black Bears have lost five of their 12 scheduled home games and this weekend’s three-game set against Hartford could be moved as well if the field isn’t playable by Friday.
“Playing at home is important, and not being able to play some of our bigger rivals here could hurt us,” said second-year coach Stacey Sullivan, last year’s America East Coach of the Year.
Stony Brook handed UMaine its first conference series loss since 2005 with three straight wins last weekend, including a 25-0 drubbing. But it would be unfair not to consider the burden the Black Bears were faced with in the last-minute travelling.
“Last week, I said that we were exausted, and we were ready to play at home,” Sullivan said. “A lot of emotion plays into this when you’re tired and things aren’t going your way. We’re looking for something to snap us out of that funk and travel is not the remedy for that.
“It had a lot to do with how we came out to play last weekend. We need that extra push.”
America East rules stipulate that in the event of adverse weather, teams will swap sites with the original home team retaining the home dugout and final at-bat. But those advantages pale in comparison to normal meals and familiar beds.
It’s also difficult to postpone the games because, by league rules, teams must face each other team at least twice in order to qualify for the postseason, leaving Northeast teams like UMaine and Binghamton stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“It’s not a fair rule. The Northeast teams are going to end up on the road a lot and the southern teams are going to get to play at home,” said Sullivan, who suggested that the use of neutral sites might help offset the advantage for warmer climate squads.
The worst part of the rule is that it doesn’t change the schedule rotation for next season. In effect, UMaine will travel to Stony Brook two years in a row because of the current policy.
With Boston University, the Black Bears were set to host a doubleheader yesterday and then travel to Beantown on April 24. That series has been flip-flopped so that weather permitting, BU will visit Orono in a few weeks – but even that solution is troublesome because it could alter UMaine’s travel plans for a series against Harvard set to take place after the squad was set to be in the Boston area for the Terrier game.
“I really don’t like the rules as they stand,” said Sullivan. “[Other solutions] might not be ideal for conference play, but in the same regard being on a bus so often isn’t ideal either.”
Temperatures in Boston were just over 50 degrees yesterday, hardly perfect conditions for a softball game. But the field wasn’t blanketed by snow, as was the case in Orono.
Another factor is missed class time. Every day the Black Bears spend on the road is another day away from campus and out of the classroom.
“At some point, something has to give,” Sullivan said. “I can’t have my girls missing this much class.”
To their credit, the Black Bears have tried to put the best spin possible on the situation despite already losing nearly half their scheduled home games for the 2007 season.
“It is what it is and we have to put our best foot forward,” said Sullivan. “Whatever they throw at us, I’d like to see it make us stronger.”
