Take the dust generated here by Hailey Hammer and increase it a billion, trillion times and that was what it was like on the prairie Friday. (John Fisken photo)
“This ain’t right!!”
As soon as she uttered the words, Rebecca Lodell probably regretted saying them … since it momentarily left her mouth open long enough for another wave of infield dirt to find a new home.
Lodell and other Coupeville High School softball parents huddled on the visitor’s side of the field Friday afternoon — since the home stands were absorbing an even worse beating from a windstorm that decimated the field.
Rumors that the home stands had actually started to sway and buck in the wind buzzed around.
True or not, no one was brave enough to camp out there any more, as the flag pole next to the stands creaked and groaned and threatened to go airborne.
The Wolf players and coaches were camped out behind their dugout, while the La Conner girls stayed as low as possible in their dugout.
The umpires?
They had fled back to their cars, yelling something about “giving it 20 minutes” before deciding whether to play.
Some time later, with the freshly-laid chalk lines on the field but a memory and miniscule bits of infield dirt nailing people in the face, the legs and every other place in between, the non-conference game was called without a pitch being thrown.
With the wind barreling straight down the middle of the field and slashing across home plate, it would have been interesting to see if a hit ball would have escaped the infield.
If anyone could have seen it happen.
“It’s in my face! It’s in my eyes! It’s … in everything,” screamed Wolf left fielder Tiffany Briscoe as she ran by, futility trying to protect herself.
“Ow! Ow! Owie ow ow ow!!,” wailed just about everyone else.
In a rare twist, the CHS baseball field across the street, which generally has a far worse wind problem, was less affected and the Wolves game had kicked off.
Me?
I took my free chocolate chip cookies from softball mom Donna Bailey and went home to pick pieces of dirt out of every one of my pores.
P.S. — No word yet on when (or if) the softball game will be rescheduled.
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Coupeville Sports 