Staff photo / Preston Byers Persistent rain has turned baseball fields like those at Perkins Park in Warren into muddy messes.

Mother Nature might not be a big fan of spring sports.

Since the athletic calendar turned to baseball, softball and track and field, rain and hail have dominated the skies, making a mess of Mahoning Valley schools’ game schedules.

Some teams spared themselves some gray and wet days with week-long stays in Myrtle Beach or Florida, like Boardman’s baseball program, which played half of a dozen games in Davenport, Florida over spring break.

“It was a great trip and the weather was amazing. … The way the weather is here this year, it was well worth the trip,” Boardman head coach Joe Gabriel said.

Those who remained in the area were left at the mercy of the eternally unpredictable Northeast Ohio weather. One of those teams was Warren G. Harding baseball, which got off to a strong start to the 2024 season by winning its first four games. After an 11-7 win road win over Canton McKinley, which was rescheduled and played in rainy conditions for the first two and a half innings, the Raiders endured a 10-day break before playing their fifth game of the season on Monday.

“The biggest issue now is when the next time we’re actually going to get on the field is,” Harding coach Andrew Burnett said on April 3, a day before the Raiders’ game against Warren JFK was canceled. “We’ve been playing well and hitting well. Hitting is one of the things you have to keep doing or it just finds a way to go away, so this week-long break here, I’m a little worried about.”

Brookfield’s softball program fell in the same proverbial boat as Harding baseball. After an impromptu doubleheader against Champion on April 1, the Warriors went a week before taking the field for a game again.

The interruption in the schedule is especially harsh to a relatively young and inexperienced team such as Brookfield’s. Head coach Dave DeJoy said his girls “have to learn to work through [their] mistakes,” which is much more difficult to accomplish without games serving as key lessons.

Some teams have become creative to maneuver around their wet and muddy fields. Will Sandy, Mineral Ridge’s softball head coach, has managed to use the Rams’ turf football field for practices and games.

“It’s great. We were very lucky to not only be able to play on the field but just the practice time,” Sandy said. “In talking with other coaches that I teach with and stuff, they haven’t gotten outside but a handful of times. We’ve been lucky to get on our field, so we’re thankful for that.”

Not wanting to cancel another game, Mathews softball coach Jim Nicula similarly used his connections to schedule the Mustangs’ game against Chalker on April 4 at Firestone Stadium in Akron.

“We’ve known a lot of people in the Akron area that had taken this over and I knew it was an option,” Nicula said. “They have scrimmages here. A lot of local teams did that, so I reached out to the gentleman that runs it and there was an opening, so we jumped on it, so we can get a game in.”

Most have not been as lucky in getting games in. The weather has, for the most part, pushed area teams indoors for the better part of the past two weeks, forcing them to hone their skills in the uncomfortable confines of gymnasiums, and if they venture outside, possibly a parking lot.

“We’re the only team in our conference that doesn’t have a turf football field, believe it or not,” West Branch head baseball coach Rick Mulinix said. “So when everybody can go out and practice on a turf football field when the weather’s bad, we get to use a parking lot.”

Teams such as Girard softball were sidelined for nearly two weeks due to the weather. The Indians’ rust was apparent in their first game back on the diamond on Monday against Poland, which had the benefit of playing a road game on Mohawk (Pa.)’s turf field on April 3 and a home doubleheader on Sunday.

“I feel like right now, with some time off, it’s like we’re getting back in the groove of things,” Girard head coach Jim Keagy said after his team’s 14-2 defeat. “We need to be outdoors. We need to play some games and I think we need to build on our successes.”

Burnett said “nothing makes up for those game reps,” a sentiment shared by many local coaches. But as Mulinix said, the fickle and often disappointing Valley weather is just a reality spring athletes have to bear.

“That’s something that if you’re a high school baseball player, it doesn’t matter where you’re at in Northeast Ohio, that’s just something that you’re used to,” Mulinix said. “It’s not like it’s a surprise to us that this happens.”

Have an interesting story? Contact Preston Byers or Brian Yauger by email at pbyers@tribtoday.com or byauger@tribtoday.com. Follow them on X, formerly Twitter, @PresByers and @_brianyauger.