Clayton News Daily

By Jeffery Armstrong

Once again, Mother Nature wreaks havoc on the 2003 high school baseball season.

The Forest Park Panthers, who had to be stewing over their one-point loss to North Clayton last Friday, did not get to take their frustrations out against the Mundy's Mill Tigers Tuesday night because of the effects of a weekend-long barrage of rain.

Forest Park and Mundy's Mill were scheduled to play a doubleheader yesterday afternoon. Panthers head coach Don Shepard said makeup games are supposed to be played today at 2 p.m., but with impending rain and the condition of the school's field, it seems unlikely that the games will take place.

The Forest Park baseball field was so drenched it looked more like swamp land than an actual field.

Forest Park (3-5-1) was looking to bounce back from its 4-3 loss to North Clayton April 4, a game in which the Panthers held a lead after the top of the third inning and tied the game after the top of the sixth and looked to extend it to extra innings.

"If we don't have the mental lapse and make the double play, we'd probably still be playing," Shepard said last Friday.

The "mental lapse" happened in the bottom of the sixth inning in last Friday's Region 4-AAAA. North Clayton had a runner on first base with one out when the next batter hit a pop fly. The pop up was dropped, but the out was recorded at first. The runner on first made it to second without being tagged and was safe. North Clayton's Dirk Engram then doubled the runner home for the winning run.

"We had our chances to win," said Shepard.