Rain, rule turn Andover softball lead into semifinal loss

Despite scoring two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead, the Andover girls softball team lost Friday in the Class 5A semifinals.

Rain made the field at Two Rivers Youth Club unplayable, which meant by rule that Andover’s seventh-inning runs couldn’t count because Shawnee Heights didn’t get to bat in the inning. The game was ruled a six-inning, 3-2 victory for Shawnee Heights, which advances to Saturday’s championship game.

“Our kids are in total devastation,” Andover coach Ernie Hager said. “I mean we are talking about ladies that have worked hard to get to where we are, and to take it away like this is a terrible process for a state competition.”

The Kansas State High School Activities Association uses National Federation of State High School Association rules for all sports. Two of those rules worked against the Trojans.

The first negated Andover’s two seventh-inning runs because Shawnee Heights didn’t get to bat in the seventh. The second was that a game can’t be suspended and resumed the next day. It must, according to KSHSAA assistant executive director Fran Martin, be completed that day.

“We checked all six diamonds at TRYC and none were playable,” Martin said. “With the steady rains and not enough wind or sun, there was standing water all over the fields. The grounds crew at TRYC said they could not get the fields ready for play before the midnight deadline to complete the game.

“We thought the best-case scenario was to hopefully play three hours after the rains had ended, but the fields still would not have been ready in time.”

Andover and St. Thomas Aquinas will share third place.

“I think it is just common sense to come back tomorrow (Saturday) to finish the game,” Hager said. “Why take away from the kids when this is the postseason? This is what we as coaches talk up during our pregame meetings with the kids. It’s a tough moment right now.”

Derby’s softball game in the Class 6A quarterfinals Thursday ended similarly. The Panthers, the designated home team, trailed Olathe East 7-3 in the bottom of the seventh when rain ended the day’s play. Olathe East’s run in the seventh inning was wiped off and the final score became 6-3. The was not suspended and was called final.

Shawnee Heights coach Steve Giddens declined to comment on the outcome, other than to sympathize with Andover.

“Nobody wants to be on the wrong end of something like this,” Giddens said. “I feel for them, but the fields were too dangerous.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2016 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Rain, rule turn Andover softball lead into semifinal loss."