Mother Nature was the winner of the American Legion Mid-South Regional baseball tournament Monday at David Allen Memorial Ballpark.

The Enid Majors and Hattiesburg, Miss., Bombers were tied 3-3 in the top of the eighth inning of an elimination game at the downtown ballpark when a severe thunderstorm pushed through the area and soaked the field.

After workers labored to get the field ready to potentially resume the game later in the evening, another thunderstorm dumped buckets of rain and forced another postponement.



Fortunately, the field was covered before the evening thunderstorm. The game is scheduled to resume at 11 a.m. today. Enid will have runners on first and second with no outs.

The Texarkana, Texas, Indians face the winner of the suspended game immediately afterward.

The winning team flies from Oklahoma City to Fargo, N.D., the site of the World Series, at 6 a.m. Wednesday morning. A winner must be decided by tonight, officials said.

If rain continues through the morning, Majors head coach Bill Mayberry said the start time could be pushed farther back, or the game could be moved to a site in Oklahoma City. The National Weather Service predicts only a 20 percent chance of rain in Enid today.

“I sure hope the sun comes out and it’s 100 degrees and windy,” said ballpark superintendent Scott Pendleton after the first rain delay. “That would be the best thing to get the field dry.”

Late in the seventh inning Monday, the wind began howling from the north in advance of the approaching thunderstorm. The gusty conditions helped Enid plate two runs in the top of the eighth.

Leadoff hitter Nick Rountree led off the inning by poking the ball up in the air to right field. Hattiesburg outfielder Chanse Mathis kept on backpedaling, expecting the ball to drop, but instead watched it sail over his head for a double. Tobin Mateychick stepped to the plate in the next at bat and did the same thing, but his ball didn’t land until it had cleared the right field wall for a two-run home run.

A pair of Hattiesburg errors put runners on first and second before the game was suspended at 4 p.m.

“We still get to pick it up where we left off,” said Mayberry. “With teams in the losers bracket, a day of rain always seems to help your pitching.”

Majors starter Seth Sturgeon held the Bombers to nine hits in seven innings of work, but Mayberry said he hasn’t decided whether Sturgeon will continue to pitch today.

Mateychick, Enid’s ace pitcher, hasn’t thrown since Thursday, and Mayberry said all the arms in the Majors’ bullpen will be ready to throw if called upon today.

Enid leadoff hitter Dylan Nave continued his hot streak, going 2-for-4 Monday. He is hitting .619 (13-for-21) in the tournament.

His single in the seventh put runners on first and second with one out, but Eddie Cervantes grounded into a double play to end the inning.

The Majors squandered a scoring chance in the sixth, when Logan Nault struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning. All the tournament game can be heard on KCRC (1390 AM) Radio.



NOTES: If fans look closely, they may notice some things missing at the downtown ballpark. By the time the afternoon storm had blown through town, it ripped up a couple of awnings. One, which was used to shade fans sitting behind third base, was ripped to shreds when a gust came through at 5:10 p.m. A similar structure in the visitor’d bullpen also was destroyed … Seventy 50-pound bags of drying agent were poured onto the infield dirt prior to it being covered with the tarp at 8:30 p.m. … Mayberry told his players Monday night to pack for Oklahoma City. If the Majors win both games today, they leave immediately to catch their flight to Fargo.



Mid-South Regional Tournament

Today’s games

11 a.m. - Majors vs. Hattiesburg

Immediately following -Texarkana vs. winner



Coverage online — Sports editor Mark Rountree will have daily blogs at enidnews.com.

There will be a daily slide show on enidnews.com.

Radio: KCRC Radio (1390 AM) will broadcast all games.

Next: The winner will advance to the American Legion World Series, which begins Friday at Fargo, N.D., the hometown of New York Yankees legend Roger Maris.

Footnotes: Enid became the only Oklahoma team to win an American Legion championship when the Majors took the 2005 crown. The Majors were the guest of Major League Baseball at the 2005 World Series.



NATIONAL SCOREBOARD



Northeast Regional (Manchester, N.H.)

Berlin Conn. 9, Portland Me. 4

Berlin, Conn. 8, Portland Me. 5

Mid-Atlantic (Morgantown West Va.)

Mount Airy Md., 10, Boyertown, Pa. 9

Mount Airy 9, Mt. Laurel, N.J. 1

Southeast (Sumter, S.C.)

Salisbury, N.C. 10, Sumter, S.C. 6

Salisbury, N.C. 3, Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2,

Great Lakes Regional (Appleton, Wisc.)

Midland Mich. 17, Palatine, Ill. 6

Midland Mich 12., Hammond, Ind. 0

Central Plains (Minnetoka, Minn.)

Festus, Mo. 10, Pittsburg, Kan. 5

Festus, Mo. 7, Pittsburg, Kan. 0

Northwest (Medford, Ore.)

Medford Ore. 14. B ellevue, Wash. 0

Western (Fairfield, Calif.)

Las Vegas 14, Fairfield, Calif. 7