Start times adjusted for Ole Miss and the Coral Gables regional due to weather
There will be early baseball in south Florida on Friday due to the threat of inclement weather as the Coral Gables Regional adjusted its start times for the opening round games.
Mother Nature is not expected to play nice in Miami and south Florida this weekend with a tropical system in the forecast, causing regional officials to move up Friday’s two games.
Ole Miss, the No. 3 seed in the regional, was scheduled to play No. 2 seed Arizona to open the regional at 6 p.m. CT but now first pitch is to be determined by what the weather looks like and when the first game of the day end.
Host team and No. 6 National Seed Miami is facing No. 4 seed Canisius to open the Coral Gables Regional at 11 a.m. CT but that game has now been moved up to 9 a.m. CT.
Once the Hurricanes and the Golden Griffins wrap up their game Ole Miss and Arizona will start 55 minutes later, weather permitting. Television information for both games is TBD but will air on ESPN+ regardless.
Waiting out the rain and inclement weather is nothing new for Ole Miss in recent weeks.
A little over a week ago the Rebels had to wait roughly six hours longer than anticipated to play their game against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament due to weather.
The waiting game is no sweat to Ole Miss.
“I think the only time that becomes a factor is if the first game gets delayed or if there’s extra innings where you’re just sitting around,” said Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco during Thursday’s media availability.
“Now, there’s a little bit of tournament angst to that where you’re taking (batting pratice) but if that game’s going fast we’ve got make sure we get our cleats on and get stretched out. The pitcher kind of doesn’t know the start time. The pitchers count back from the time that they start to stretch and do all their pregame stuff leading up to the game time. But again they’re used to that because of conference tournaments and doubleheaders that they play during the year. It’s not that big a factor but it is different.”
The current hour-by-hour forecast for the Coral Gables area, according to The Weather Channel, has a 79 to 92 percent chance for rain from 9 a.m. to Noon then it goes to 100 percent to as low as 85 percent the rest of the day.
Saturday has a 86 percent chance for rain and thunderstorms then drops to 58 percent on Sunday.
Related: Sizing up Ole Miss’ opponents in the Coral Gables Regional
