Taylorsville, Mother Nature win at American Legion baseball

KEARNS — Flash floods and baseball never go well together. At the American Legion Utah state baseball tournament Tuesday afternoon, a continuous downpour forced officials to shut down games until today.

Helper led Cyprus 3-2 after five innings in one game that was delayed on Tuesday. According to the national high school baseball handbook, the game could've been called in favor of Helper. Cyprus head coach Bob Fratto wasn't about to let his team be eliminated by the rain and after a phone call to the national headquarters, state commissioner Jeff Nakaishi was told the Pirates could finish out the game.

"I made a call to national headquarters, and they told me (Cyprus) were eligible to finish the game at the next available time."

On the south field, Taylorsville edged Granger for a 8-6 victory just before the rain started.

Call it great timing because less than five minutes after the game, the home plate was flooded and the first baseline was a river leading to it.

Other postponed games have been slated to start at 10 a.m. on both fields today, where Highland will take on the Trappers and Tooele will meet Logan after the 9 a.m. game goes final.

The two remaining games will follow the one-loss bracket games, where West takes on the Sox and Kearns hosts Weber.

"Most teams that win tomorrow will have to play twice, and that's about all I can do as far as making up the games," acknowledged Nakaishi.

All other games scheduled for today will throw the first pitch at their original times, weather permitting of course. A look at multiple weather forecasts shows scattered thunderstorms through the weekend, but Nakaishi isn't afraid to try and outlast mother nature.

"We'll wait it out as long as we have to, and just hope it isn't bad like it was today."

All games are held at Oquirrh Field in Kearns behind the Olympic Oval.

email: cjohnson@desnews.com