Storm clouds loom in the background as Brentwood's softball team is at bat during the District 11-AAA tournament. The game with RHS will resume today at 4 p.m., weather permitting.

Updated 4 p.m. Friday
By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
School officials have moved the District 11-AAA soccer final between Brentwood and Ravenwood at RHS up to 5:30 p.m. Friday to try to beat thunderstorms forecast for a second straight day, and Brentwood Academy's baseball playoff series has been postponed. BHS-RHS district tournament softball will try to resume at 4 p.m. today after Mother Nature already threw a curveball Thursday night. 

Ravenwood 1B Hayley Greer and 2B Erin Johnson get ready on defense as Susan Huddleston delivers the pitch. (Photos by Jodi Rall)

Pop-up storms with lightning forced suspension of the crucial Lady Raptors-Lady Bruins winners bracket in the top of the fourth inning with the game tied 2-2.  Some BHS players pitched in to help the RHS players cover the field with the tarp when it was called nearly three hours after Thursday’s 5 p.m. start time.

Already on Friday, Brentwood Academy delayed its double-header Division II-AA first-round baseball playoff series with Father Ryan from 1 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday.

District 11-AAA soccer, which never kicked off Thursday, decided to reschedule its championship game for Friday night nearly a half-hour before softball called it a night. Ravenwood Coach Ken White said that besides safety concerns, end-of-school exams including Advanced Placement History tests Friday morning were the main reason for going ahead and delaying a day.

“We could be here until midnight,” White said. “The most important thing is academics. … It’s just uncertain. We could leave here in 5 minutes and it could be magic.”

That wasn’t the case, however, with pop-up thunderstorms continuing to cause a 30-minute delay after each lightning strike. The Brentwood-Ravenwood softball game had waited out a 1-hour, 15-minute delay – then picked up with one batter around 7:10 p.m. before soccer and softball both were held off by lightning.

Unlike soccer, the softball tournament isn’t down to the two teams moving onto regions -- and has a minimum of three games to play to even get to the finalists. The winner of Brentwood-Ravenwood not only will be guaranteed a spot in the softball championship game, but also a berth in next Monday’s regional semifinals.

 “Right now we’re at four teams and it’s going to be a fight if we get everything rained out completely,” Lady Raptors Coach Kari Akin said. “We’re the No. 1 seed and we’re still undefeated (in the tourney). But Independence is the No. 2 seed and they’ve been beat, and Brentwood is actually undefeated. And then you’ve Centennial and they’re still playing well and they’re still in it.

“So it’s just going to be a fight between athletic directors really if it doesn’t get in. We’re going to do everything we can. We can play until Sunday. Hopefully it’ll clear up enough we can get it in.  We’re the only field that has a tarp so there’s luck there with that.”

The Independence-Centennial elimination game, scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday, was also moved to another neutral site “so we don’t push the tournament any further back than it already is,” Lady Bruins Coach Clint Finch said.

IHS and CHS will play simultaneously, at 3 p.m. Friday at Franklin High, “and then come over here because these are the two games left that you don’t have to wait on each other,” Akin said.

Games originally set for 5 and 7 p.m. Friday at RHS will probably be pushed back to around 6 and 8 p.m., weather permitting.

 “We’ll finish our game if at all possible, then the loser bracket final will take place after that game,” Finch said. “And, after that game, we’ll start the winner’s bracket final, assuming the weather doesn’t get us.”

Brentwood, which had already upset Independence in the tournament, opened up a 2-0 lead after first batter Kasey Smith hit a single to left field. She made it to second when the ball got past the RHS outfielder, then reached third on a throwing error.

Brentwood's Ashley Rahrer bats against Ravenwood.

Catcher Carissa Schmittou’s fielders’ choice scored Smith and moved Christina Schwarz, who had walkedand stole second, to third. Whitney Crenshaw’s single drove in Schwarz.

Ravenwood, however, got even in the bottom of the first after Hannah Trainer smashed a liner off the glove of Schwarz at third to lead off the inning. Trainer moved to second on a wild pitch, stole third on a low pitch, and scored Lindsey Thurman’s groundout to first base.

Lakin Singleton, who had walked before Thurman, scored after the Lady Bruins’ second baseman and right fielder got confused over a fly ball. But the hitter, Kaitlyn, Queen was thrown out trying to make it to second.

BHS had a chance to score in the top of the third following Kayla Ferrari’s single deep to shortstop and Schwarz’s hit to left. Ferrari tagged up and made it to third on Schmittou’s long fly ball to right, but Schwarz was caught in a rundown.

Susan Huddleston had recorded two strikeouts for the Lady Raptors.

“This is our fifth time to play Brentwood so it’s going to be a tough ballgame between us,” Akin said. “We both know each other’s hitters, we both know each other’s pitchers, so we expect a dogfight.”