{"id":101374,"date":"2018-04-16T00:04:34","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T05:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=101374"},"modified":"2018-04-15T20:45:01","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T01:45:01","slug":"local-baseball-coaches-happy-with-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2018\/04\/16\/local-baseball-coaches-happy-with-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Local baseball coaches happy with change"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n

All three of Van Wert County\u2019s high school baseball coaches are pleased with a decision by Ohio High School Athletic Association\u2019s Board of Directors that will slightly alter the season, starting in 2019.<\/p>\n

Last fall, the board rejected a proposal to extend the season by two weeks, but by a 7-2 vote last Thursday the same board reversed course and approved a proposal by the Ohio Baseball Coaches Association to extend the season one week beginning next year.\"\"<\/p>\n

The maximum number of regular season games won\u2019t be affected by the change, but the regular season will be one week longer. The 2019 state tournament will be June 6, 7 and 8 instead of May 30, 31 and June 1.<\/p>\n

Van Wert has dealt with more than a half dozen rainouts or postponements since the season began in late March, and head coach Charlie Witten said he\u2019s in favor of the pending change.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely like the decision to extend the baseball season,\u201d Witten stated. \u201cIt will give teams more opportunities to get games made up and hopefully make it so teams do not have to schedule six games in a week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a stretch of eight games in nine days starting April 30, now that we are rescheduling games we have missed,” Witten added.\u201d<\/p>\n

Longtime Crestview head coach Jim Wharton has dealt with countless rainouts and postponements over the years and with pitching restrictions in place, he said he\u2019s excited about the decision to extend the season by a week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the recent and much needed pitching restrictions ruling I feel this decision was made having the health of our athletes a top priority,\u201d Wharton explained. \u201cLooking at other states, Ohio still has the fewest number of dates to complete it\u2019s season. We have 42 days from the opening day of the season to the opening day of tournament play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis extended one week is a positive start looking at all the factors pertaining to player conditioning, weather conditions, and the potential of higher quality baseball,\u201d Wharton added.<\/p>\n

Lincolnview head coach Eric Fishpaw echoed many of the same sentiments as his Van Wert County counterparts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very glad that it passed for the sake of the game of baseball, the players, and coaching staffs,\u201d Fishpaw said. \u201cIt allows more practices to get teams better and improve the quality of the game. It also allows us to play in some warmer weather.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGames can be more spread out throughout the season and there are make up dates available for when the weather does not permit us to play, Fishpaw continued. \u201cThe spring is such a small sample size of what the season is and extending it can help players continue to improve and get better even if it is five or six extra days to play or practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other states, including Indiana and Michigan already have longer baseball seasons compared to Ohio. Indiana\u2019s state semifinals and finals will be played June 15 and 16, while Michigan\u2019s will be played June 14-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor All three of Van Wert County\u2019s high school baseball coaches are pleased with a decision by Ohio High School Athletic Association\u2019s Board of Directors that will slightly alter the season, starting in 2019. Last fall, the board rejected a proposal to extend the season by two weeks, but by a 7-2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 12:20:50","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}