Rain Delay and Reschedule: Mahomet-Seymour’s Quest for Sectional Title to Continue Monday
By FRED KRONER
The goal when Mahomet-Seymour’s baseball team took the field on Saturday (June 1) in a Class 3A sectional championship game at Rochester High School was to be playing again on Monday (June 3).
The Bulldogs are, in fact, playing on Monday, just not in the game they expected.
The sectional title game between M-S and Champaign Central was delayed for 3 hours and 38 minutes by rain and then was halted for the day about 2 hours and 20 minutes later after four innings and Central clinging to a 4-3 lead.
The contest will be resumed on Monday (11 a.m.) at Monticello High School – which has an artificial turf field – with Central ready to bat in the top of the fifth inning.
Had the schools played a full five innings on Saturday, it would have counted as an official game. A regulation high school game is seven innings.
The Monday morning winner has little time to celebrate. A super-sectional date against Highland (28-6-1) will take place Monday evening at 6 p.m. at the Millikin University field, in Decatur.
M-S has a 27-8 season record. Central is 25-13.
Finn Randolph scored twice for M-S on Saturday. He singled and gave the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead when he raced home on a sacrifice fly by Nolan Johnson.
In the third inning, Randolph again singled and was chased home on a triple by Gavin Bailey, who scored shortly thereafter on a wild pitch.
Both schools had innings on Saturday where they left the bases loaded.
Mason Orton pitched all four innings on Saturday for M-S, but likely won’t return to the mound against the Maroons. Future college pitchers Randolph (Wabash College) or Alec Bergman (Parkland College) are the top candidates to enter in relief.
M-S is seeking its third sectional title in baseball in school history and the first since 2000.
