Rain washes out playoff games

CHRISTIANSBURG — Brittany Arnn finally snapped.

“PLEASE STOP RAINING!” the Tunstall softball pitcher screamed while sitting in a school bus outside the Christiansburg Recreation Center.

The Tunstall softball team and the Chatham baseball team had their state semifinal games at Radford postponed because of rain Friday morning, prompting the Pittsylvania County high school teams to combine their resources in an effort to keep sharp for their games, which have been tentatively rescheduled for Saturday. Chatham (23-2) faces Rappahannock (17-4) in a Group A baseball semifinal at 10 a.m. Saturday at Radford University and Tunstall (22-0) takes on Piedmont District rival Patrick County (20-4) in a Group AA softball semifinal game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Veteran’s Park in Radford.

If either team advances, their state championship games will be played Sunday morning in Radford.

In the meantime, the teams took batting practice in a dimly lit warehouse on the recreation center’s property, a building that formerly served as a storage facility when the rec center was a Lowe’s. The use of the facility was suggested by Mike and Lisa Tuck, former Tunstall students who live in Blacksburg and whose nephew is Brent Shelton, a junior desig-nated hitter for Chatham.

“It’s not fancy,” Lisa Tuck said with a laugh, “but it’s better than playing sockball at the hotel.”

Mike Tuck’s recreational teams play at the rec center and once he heard that the games were postponed, he looked to help out as much as he could. The teams were allowed to use the batting cages free of charge.

“They knew we were coming up here,” Shelton said. “They called my parents and said if we needed a place, my uncle knew of a place.”

Raindrops danced off the aluminum roof of the warehouse as Tunstall senior Jenna Rudder traded her flip flops for assistant coach Wendy Bryant-Cook’s tennis shoes before batting. Rudder only brought flip flops and cleats.

“I came to play,” she said with a shrug.

Tunstall coach Roger Cook, who is retiring after this, his 26th season, pitched to the girls and dodged a few line drives in the process. He showed off a couple of welts, like war wounds, that he’d recently received while throw-ing batting practice in the last few weeks.

“One more day. Maybe two more days,” he said, smiling. “If I survive.”

Chatham showed up about an hour after Tunstall’s session and right as its opponent, Rappahannock, was leaving. Raiders coach Larry Barker and Chatham coach Chad Anderson introduced themselves and shook hands before Rappahannock departed the facilities.

Rappahannock found out about the facilities thanks to a former Christiansburg basketball coach.

“It certainly was a coincidence,” Anderson said.