If one high school baseball game is rained out, then all are, according to a rule in the PCL

Irvine’s baseball team is scheduled to play at University Monday in a rescheduled PCL game (File photo Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone).

This week’s rains created more scheduling challenges for high school baseball coaches in Orange County, including those in the Pacific Coast League.

All three PCL baseball games scheduled for Friday were postponed and rescheduled for Monday afternoon because of league rule, according to Woodbridge Athletic Director Rick Gibson.

“There is a rule if one school is rained out everyone is,” Gibson said Friday. “The thought behind the rule is no one would be awarded an advantage due to weather, such as having to play three games in a week vs. someone who only had to play two (pitching).”

So the games rescheduled for Monday are Woodbridge at Beckman, Portola at Northwood and Irvine at University.

University Coach Michael Thompson said the University field was playable as of Thursday. The rule does not apply to the JV level, so the JV teams from Irvine and Uni are scheduled to play at Uni Friday at 3.

Beckman Coach Kevin Lavalle said the coaches of the three games who were scheduled to host games decided Thursday that there was no guarantee that all of their fields would be ready to play and that finding umpires for the Monday games was a high priority.

He said that the coaches didn’t want to wait until Friday to make the calls and then not be able to line up umpires for Monday’s rescheduled games.

Lavalle said Friday, “there are puddles on the infield” after Thursday night’s rain. He pointed out that both he and Northwood Coach Rob Stuart also teach classes and can’t devote all their time to maintaining and preparing fields.

Lavalle confirmed Thursday that the Beckman field was unplayable.

Stuart, the Northwood coach, said, “we all play or nobody plays. League rules are created to insure safety and fairness for our players when it comes to weather and field conditions.”

There is also a slight chance of rain for Sunday and Monday.

There are other games scheduled for Friday in Orange County (Please click here for a listing of some of them)

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com