"Everybody's scrambling," she said. "A lot of divisions are coming down to the last game on the last day."
Throw in weather delays - those April showers - and some teams, baseball included, may not know until late Thursday who and where they are playing Friday and Saturday in the first round of the state playoffs.
Bogue is lucky. Her team clinched a first-round bye and doesn't play until next week.
Mooreville and Mantachie aren't as fortunate. They play Thursday for the No. 2 and No. 3 seedings in the softball postseason that begins Friday.
Some softball coaches said they didn't know about the change in the playoffs format - the adding of the No. 2 vs. No. 3 first-round "play-in" series.
"The coaches have known about this for a year," said Rickey Neaves, the associate director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association. "It's something the softball coaches wanted."
Neaves said the MHSAA is looking at establishing a deadline date for completion of division play in softball and baseball.
"At one time it we had one," he said. "Then we had teams cancelling games the final week of the regular season."
BASEBALL UPDATE
In baseball, like softball, some teams are playing today and Thursday to determine playoff seedings and pairings.
Thrasher was scheduled to play a crucial game at Wheeler on Tuesday. The game was moved to 7 p.m. Thursday. The division title is on the line. Thrasher is 10-1, including a 5-3 win over 9-2 Wheeler.
Thrasher coach Richie Taylor would rather battle the rain than have his team unprepared for division play earlier in the season.
"I still like playing them at the end of the season. You're coming right out of basketball for the small schools," Taylor said. "Sometimes you have to deal with rain."
Thrasher can clinch a first-round bye with a win. Wheeler will have to win by three or more runs to earn the bye.
"It's a quick turnaround if you don't have a lot of pitching," Taylor said, referring to Friday's start of the playoffs.





