OMAHA, Neb. -- What had already been the most delayed College World Series in at least 14 years absorbed another weather blow on Monday.
The first game of the College World Series championship series between No. 5 Arkansas and No. 3 Oregon State was postponed at about 7:35 p.m. Monday during a driving rain. The first pitch is now scheduled for 6 p.m. today at TD Ameritrade Stadium.
The skies around Omaha were bright and blue leading up to the scheduled first pitch time of 6 p.m., with the red of Razorbacks fans vastly outnumbering their orange-clad counterparts from Oregon State in the 24,000-seat park as the players warmed up.
However, the skies darkened around 6:30 p.m. and it began raining heavily around 7. Water was standing in the dugouts, the warning track and on the dirt portions ringing the field not long after the deluge started.
"We made the right decision not starting it at 6 o'clock," Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. "The meteorologist who is on site said it was going to rain about 7 pretty good and he nailed it.
"The next two to three days look really nice. It's probably best that we didn't play tonight."
Game 2 is now scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday and the first pitch for a Game 3, if necessary, would be determined later.
Oregon State Coach Pat Casey, speaking on his way to the team bus said, "That's one thing Coach Van Horn and I both said. Let's just make sure the integrity of the game's not in jeopardy and these kids who are playing for a national championship have the opportunity to play in a situation that's worthy of it."
CWS officials announced that fans should use the same tickets for tonight's game with which they gained entry to Monday's game.
The aces for both teams are expected to start the opener, with Arkansas right-hander Blaine Knight (13-0, 2.88) facing Oregon State left-hander Luke Heimlich (16-2, 2.80).
This is the third game that has been postponed overnight at the series and the second involving Arkansas. Both winner's bracket games -- Mississippi State vs. North Carolina scheduled for June 18 and Arkansas vs. Texas Tech scheduled for the next day -- were moved to the following days."
The CWS had endured 11 hours of rain delays prior to Monday's postponement, including a 2 hour, 49-minute delay in the sixth inning of the Razorbacks' 11-5 victory over Texas in their opener.
Van Horn said his team has responded well to weather problems all year.
"If they'd have told us we were playing at 10:30 tonight we'd hang around and be ready to go," he said. "But you know, I think our guys are pretty resilient and we've been that way all year. We've been through rain delays and cold weather and double headers and everything. So it's such a privilege to be here and they've earned their way here and we'll stay as long as it takes."
The postponement plays to Oregon State's favor. Heimlich would have been pitching on four day's rest if the series had started Monday, and the Beavers' No. 2 starter Bryce Fehmel would have been on three day's rest if he had pitched tonight.
"It probably does [favor the Beavers]," Van Horn said. "We just talked about that as a team. You know it is what it is. We're down to the final two. It's all squared up is the way I look at it.
"Let's just see if we can win the series and play in some good conditions at a good time of day. I told them, you look down the road and 20 years from now you're not going to really remember all the rain delays and everything. You're just going to remember the great experience you had and whether you won or lost."
Sports on 06/26/2018
