DARMOUTH, Mass. – I looked at the clock on my laptop Wednesday morning. It read “10:02 a.m.”
It was time to pack up and head to UMass Dartmouth for the 1 p.m., Div. 1 tournament semifinal matchup between Central Catholic and Attleboro High.
I was figuring on a two-plus hour drive and, just in case, wanted to leave an hour open in case of extra traffic, accidents or some unforeseen circumstance.
I filled up my tank on Route 125 in Andover and at 10:20 a.m. had passed the State Police barracks.
Why did that matter?
Because that’s the amount of time – 18 minutes – it took for Attleboro to finish off Central, scoring a run in the top of the 11th inning and then survived a mini-scare in the bottom of the inning before finishing the deal, 5-4.
And now the rest of the story.
Central and Attleboro, the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds respectively in the softball Div. 1 power rankings, were set to play on Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at UMass Dartmouth in Dartmouth, Mass.
The game was later moved to 5:30 p.m., which really stinks, because getting to the south side of the state is five times harder at that time rather than the 3:30 p.m. time.
Mind you, “Final Four” games are expected to be played, for every sport, at a neutral site for both teams.
Dartmouth is 40 miles from Attleboro High and 88 miles to Central Catholic. That’s a one-hour bus ride for Attleboro and a two-plus hour bus ride – 2½ hours on Tuesday during rush hour – Central’s undefeated girls.
Why not Wellesley or Waltham, a mid-point for both schools and home to a few area college softball programs? Whatever.
The game was supposed to start at 5:30 p.m. The game before it, the Div. 3 state semis, Apponequet Regional vs. Dighton-Rehoboth, finished about 5:10 p.m. with AR winning, 2-1.
By the way, those two schools are “right down the street,” with AR 14 miles away compared to D-R at 24 miles.
Everything seemed to be in order.
For some reason, there was no haste to get the Div. 1 game going. In fact I asked Central coach Stacy Ciccolo, at about 5:30 p.m., what the delay was in starting their game.
“I have no idea,” she said. “We’ve been ready to take infield (practice).”
The Central-Attleboro game eventually started, after each time had the infield/outfield pregame drills, just after 6 p.m.
Attleboro jumped to a 4-0 lead through three innings, with Central a little sloppy, before the Raiders clawed back with a run in the fourth, again in the sixth, before Chloe Salerno’s clutch two-run homer to tie it with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning.
The place was electric, particularly on the Central side.
Extra innings, the eighth, ninth and 10th innings were pitching clinics led by two of the star hurlers, Central’s Salerno and Attleboro’s Jenna Callahan.
By the start of the 10th inning, people started talking about the impending darkness, now after 8 p.m.
After Central’s final out in the bottom of the 10th inning the umpires met at home plate with the coaches, athletic directors and MIAA representative.
“The umpires were concerned about safety because of the darkness and we’re playing tomorrow at 1 p.m,” said Ciccolo after walking away from the meeting. “Great. Another two and a half hour bus ride here and back home. That’s ten hours on a bus in less than twenty-four hours.”
It led to another discussion: Why would the MIAA schedule a night game at a facility without lights?
“It is inexcusable to ask a team to travel ten hours over two days,” said Ciccolo. “It is also inexcusable to play a night game at a field without lights. At this point of the season all of the teams are very good. All of the games are close. Extra innings games happen a lot.”
But the worst part was its effect on the game, which awards the winner a state final berth.
Central did the “bus” thing and arrived at UMass Dartmouth. But it felt a little different.
Indeed. It was 58 degrees on Tuesday night and it was hovering 80 degrees when the game restarted at 12:53 p.m., seven minutes earlier than the time set.
“We had so much momentum (Tuesday) night and today felt like a new game,” said Ciccolo. “We sort of lost what we had late in the game (Tuesday) night.”
Attleboro had no such issue. They opened with a deep lineout to center, a single, a sacrifice bunt and an RBI double to get the all-important fifth run, stranding two other runners on second and third.
Central tried clawing back with a groundout, single to right, a sacrifice bunt, a walk and groundout to end it.
Attleboro advanced with the 5-4 win.
“No excuses,” said Ciccolo. “We probably should have won it in extra innings, but didn’t come through. We both had the same issues today and they came through and we didn’t.”
But there was a sour taste to this one, making Central make the extra-long journey twice, back and forth, over a 24-hour stretch.
“All I’ll say is that I had about 10 high school softball coaches call me to say that it was completely unacceptable for the MIAA to host games, especially at 5:30 (p.m.) with no lights.”
I tried contacting the MIAA’s media guy, Jim Clark, who has been great for the organization, on my way home yesterday at about 3:15 p.m., but to no avail.
There was never any message or apology from the MIAA side.
“It’s one thing if it’s weather that causes the game to be halted and moved to the next day,” said Ciccolo. “That was a human error. Nobody from the MIAA said anything to me about the location of this game and the fact there were no lights.”
After the game, Central senior Megan Maresca spoke for a lot of people after jumping back on a bus after only 18 minutes on the field.
“This felt different, playing the next day,” she said. “We just didn’t have that feeling we had (on Tuesday) night.”
You can email Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.