Gators patiently waiting for playoffs
By Jeff Malmgren
Fauquier coach Paul Koch is "pumped" and can't wait for the Valley Baseball League playoffs to begin Tuesday.
Regardless, he and the Gators have done a lot of waiting lately.
Dressed and ready to play the River Bandits in Woodstock on Saturday, they sat in a bus in the Fauquier High parking lot, waiting for eventual word that their game was postponed because of a storm passing through the area.
And that was a pleasant wait compared to the one the Gators (23-15) endured Sunday.
They traveled to play an evening game against Harrisonburg but only got through two innings before the field lights went out. Two-and-a-half hours later, after failed attempts to illuminate the field, the game was postponed.
So the Gators traveled back to Harrisonburg on Monday and played a doubleheader, losing the resumed first game 4-3 and winning the second 6-2.
That won't be the Gators' final doubleheader, either. A postponed June 14 game against league-leading Luray will be made up Saturday as a part of a 4/7:30 p.m. doubleheader at Fauquier High.
The Gators were also scheduled to play Luray (28-10) on Thursday (after Fauquier Weekend press time), making three of their last six games of the season against the league's best team.
That's a tough schedule down the stretch, but Koch was happy to have the challenge.
"We want to see what we’re made of against them," he said Thursday morning. "They’re the measuring stick right now and hopefully we’ll get ready for seeing them down the road in the playoffs."
The Gators will likely enter Tuesday's playoffs as either a No. 3 or 4 seed, but they could drop lower depending on how their remaining games play out...See the Friday print edition of the Fauquier Weekend for the complete story.