After nearly a week of rain just about everyone welcomed back the sun on Tuesday afternoon but you would be hard pressed to find someone who embraced it more than Chip Edwards.
After the start of the ENC Babe Ruth District 6 9U tournament on Friday the recent rash of rain wiped out three straight days of action and threatened to washout a fourth on Tuesday until the sun poked through the sky a mere hour before the tourney was scheduled to start.
“I’m ecstatic because for one, I just like to watch the kids play,” said Edwards, the Washington Cal Ripken/Little Tar Heel League president. “But truthfully these kids have been chomping at the bit for three days to play some ball and it’s just exciting to get them back here and give them that opportunity.
“ … On Friday we were able to play four games in between some major weather events. On Saturday I fought with the district commissioner to move the games up but I wasn’t allowed to and those games got rained out. Then we got rained out on Sunday and Monday.”
Those rainouts caused chaos for Edwards and the six teams involved in the tourney.
“The biggest challenge of the whole thing is communicating with all the teams and their coaches,” Edwards said. “We got some people that are coming from as far as two-and-a-half hours away and you need to make decisions early even if you don’t know if it’s going to rain or not.”
The heavy rain put a heavy burden on all those involved but Edwards said there were several people that stepped up to the challenge.
“I want to make a special point to say thank you to the city guys who came out here and prepped these field for us each and every day,” Edwards said. “They have done a masterful job. Just an hour-and-a-half ago (before the games started) it rained hard enough to rain just about any other field out and we were able to play baseball. They’re efforts cannot go unnoticed.”