Today’s rubber game between South Carolina and Georgia was set to begin at 2 ET. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans.
The SEC has a rule about Sunday games affected by weather: the game has to start by 4 pm, and if it goes into another delay, it can’t restart more than two hours later.
USC and UGA had gotten special permission to play no matter what, considering the conference standings, but there was apparently no way to get the game in today. The radar showed monsoon-style weather for the foreseeable future, and so the game was called. It will not be rescheduled.
Why can’t they just make the game up tomorrow, you ask? Another SEC rule: a team has a weekend to play three games, and the series can’t carry over to Monday because players would miss class. Yes, school is over for the year at both South Carolina and Georgia, but it doesn’t matter. There aren’t “summer rules”.
In this case, I think an exception should be made. This was going to be a pivotal game, and it’s unfair that it won’t get to happen, especially because permission to play regardless of time constraints had already been given and because the guys don’t have to get back for classes tomorrow.
This wouldn’t be nearly as much of a big deal if the pennant race in the conference weren’t so close.
Kentucky holds a half-game lead on Carolina, since they played a double header yesterday because of imminent weather threats for today. The Cocks and Dawgs thought they’d be able to get their game in, so they didn’t play two yesterday. If only they’d known.
LSU, who has already won the SEC West, was tied with USC at 17-9 coming into today. If both teams had won, there would have been a three-way tie for first place for the conference championship. The Tigers are currently playing Vanderbilt.
The regular-season championship and seeds for the SEC tournament are determined by winning percentage and not total wins, so this rain out may come back to haunt the Yardcocks. It’s easy to say that the teams should’ve played it safe yesterday and had back to back games, but both Ray Tanner and David Perno thought there’d be an opportunity to get a game in, or at least to get five innings, which constitute enough to make a score final. No such luck.
Part of the reason no double header was requested was that today was supposed to be the Bulldogs’ Senior Day. That reason kind of sucks, to be honest, but I guess it’s a reason. Thanks to the rain, UGA will now have to move its Senior Day anyway.
It’s a shame that this is the way it is after South Carolina has responded and battled and won anyway since their rocky start this season. That being said, it’s also a shame that the rocky start happened. As much of a bummer as this whole situation is, there’s really nothing that can be done.
Tanner said he’ll try to schedule a non-conference game for tomorrow, which won’t help USC’s SEC standings, but will at least give them another game in their overall record.
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