Rainouts force Florence to play more doubleheaders

FLORENCE — Weather has not been a friend to the teams of the Coastal Plain League this season.

The Florence RedWolves haven’t immune to the rash of weather delays and rainouts. Four times in the last two weeks, the team has had either a lengthy delay or had a game postponed.

Last Saturday’s game against Wilson at Legion Field was delayed twice for over an hour because of bad weather. The following night’s game at Columbia was completely washed out.

Mother Nature wasn’t finished with Florence. She was only getting started.

Severe storms washed away Thursday night’s home meeting with Columbia, then Friday’s game at rival Fayetteville.

“You can only control so much,” RedWolves coach Wes Davis said. “It’s a little frustrating when you’ve sat three or four days without playing. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes it rains.

“The team, (pitching coach) J.T. (Severe) and myself are eager and ready to play some ball.”

Those games will be played as part of consecutive twinbills in Columbia and Fayetteville on July 25 and 26. Nevertheless, the team presses on.

“You still have to play the games. Our guys still have to be focused,” Davis said. “The doubleheaders affect both teams equally. But we have a good pitching staff, so I’m not really worried.”

Slipping and sliding

All was not lost, however, during the delays and rainouts. Several RedWolves players, along with team owner Kevin Barth, used the tarpolin covering the infield as their personal slip-and-slide before last Saturday’s game.

“It was a lot of fun. This team is about playing baseball and having fun,” Barth said. “I don’t know who egged it on, me or them.

“My wife gave me grief about it. She said I’m too old to doing something like that.”

The players had even more fun on the tarp during the monsoon that postponed Thursday’s contest.

“The Barth family and the RedWolves are all about having a good time,” Davis said. “During rain delays, guys will do wacky things to keep themselves loose and relaxed. I’m all for it.

“It was definitely pretty funny.”

Unlikely sweep

In the first two years of the I-95 Challenge Cup, the RedWolves have watched their rivals from Fayetteville hoist the trophy.

This season, Florence set out to get it. The team accomplished its goal in a way that had never been done in the series. The RedWolves swept the first seven games from the SwampDogs to forcefully bring the Cup to Florence for the first time.

“You never expect to sweep anybody out. We play everybody hard,” Davis said. “Our guys have been playing well this season, and I’m proud of what they have accomplished.”

“I would have never thought we would win it this way,” Florence GM Jamie Young said. “Fayetteville is always strong, and (coach Darrell) Handelsman always recruits a great team.

“I’m happy to win (the Cup) because it gives us a little credibility and it now puts us among the elite teams in the league.”

Barth said he couldn’t wait to bring the Cup home to the fans.

“We’re thrilled to death,” he said. “They’ve beaten up on us pretty good the last two years. We plan on presenting it to our fans Monday night (against Fayetteville).”

Welcome visitors

Last Saturday’s game against Wilson brought more than 3,100 fans to Legion Field, by far the biggest crowd this season.

Among the fans who arrived at the ballpark were several members of the Florence Phantoms. While preparing for their first round American Indoor Football Association playoff game against Huntington, the team took some time off to take in a baseball game.

Unfortunately, they sat through two rain delays and then watched closer Tio McLean give up a game-winning grand slam in a 9-8 loss to the Tobs.