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The Springwood varsity baseball team has been set back by rain since the preseason, but the Wildcats had to cancel two games against Southern Prep due to the flooding over the weekend.

Springwood is on spring break, so the Wildcats will now go almost two weeks without a game.

This isn’t the first time the rain has affected Springwood as the January weather caused the Wildcats to lose a lot of practice time while the batting cages were being renovated.

Springwood head coach David Hudson didn’t want to have this much of a gap between games.

“We scheduled something on Monday and Tuesday so it wouldn’t be such a long break without us playing,” Hudson said.

“I had to bump a non-area game. We have Glenwood Monday and Tuesday, but they’re calling for a chance of rain. I hope there’s no more getting rained out. Our field is usable after three or four days of dry weather. I just want the kids to enjoy their spring break. There was no practice this week. The kids can use the cages if they like. I’ll probably take my son there on Sunday. A couple kids did show up.”

Springwood started the season losing five of their first seven games, and the January rain contributed to the shortened preparation.

“Our cage wasn’t complete, so we didn’t really have anywhere to hit,” Hudson said.

“We were limited on days we could get on the field. We now have cages at the field that work and a cage in the gym. The only thing we could do during those days was work in the bullpen. We worked on a few little things in the gym but basketball was going on. Soccer and softball were trying to get in there, so it was hard.”

The cages at the field were unusable in January because the Wildcats were installing turf.

“The cages were built a couple years ago, but there was no surface just rocks,” Hudson said.

“We wanted to put turf down and get it fixed up so it could be something to use for years to come. We could do more than just hitting in there. We could take some ground balls. We can make it realistic to a field. It kind of messed us up with the rain. We couldn’t lay down the turf until it dried up enough.”

The cage in the gym was also broken in January as the mechanism to lift the net was broken.

“Both cages were fixed after our season started,” Hudson said.

“By the first of March, it was all completed. We still have some work to do on the cages we are using.”

If the rain continues to disrupt practices, Springwood will be limited to working in the cages.

“We have three cages among softball and baseball,” Hudson said.

“They can hit in one cage. There’s still a ton of stuff we can do. If the rain is blowing in on us, we might not be able to get in there.”

Hudson wished he had more time on the field, especially since the Wildcats have a lot of room for improvement.

“It’s frustrating,” Hudson said.

“With the rain and practices, we wanted the kids to be a little more prepared when the season starts. We weren’t where we needed to be when the season started. We were trying to catch up, which makes it tough. We’re still plugging away. The kids are putting in work. There are still things we need to do to get to where we need to be by the end of the season. We have some big area games coming up. That’s what we’re trying to get to.”

Springwood started the season 2-5 but has won four of their last seven.

The work in the cages is showing up as Springwood only had 17 runs in their first five games but 47 runs in their last five.

Forty-five of those came in three games.

Springwood plays at home against Glenwood on Monday.