Baylor-OU Trapped in Rain Delay

Lightning strikes and thunderstorms have forced a delay in the already postponed opening of the Phillips Big 12 Baseball Championship. There was a lightning strike at the stadium at 9:30 CT, meaning it will be at least 10 before the game gets underway no matter what -- but a look at Oklahoma City radar sort of makes even that idea laughable.

via radblast-aws.wunderground.com

Should the weather continue to be an issue, the entire tournament may be at risk at this point with yesterday's postponement; it's going to be very difficult to get things completed in time for a final Sunday, which is sort of a requirement thanks to the NCAA tournament selection deadline.

Update, 10:30 CT: "I don't think the heavy stuff's gonna come down for awhile yet." Per radar, the heaviest portion of that small storm cell is just now moving into downtown Oklahoma City. This storm is moving very slowly; it's taken an hour and a half just to cross half of Oklahoma County. This delay is going to be long, and at this point I would be surprised if OU/Baylor get underway before 12:30 -- the scheduled start time for the KSU/Texas Tech game. Even if the rain stops in an hour, the field is a mess. (The infield is tarped and fine, but the warning track resembles an overflowing ditch right now.)

There's not a lot of wiggle room here. The options are to play late, late into the night, or to push games back such that one of the teams in the championship game is forced to play a double-header on Sunday. Now, admittedly, if this results in K-State finishing pool play on Saturday while the other pool winner has to play on Sunday morning before facing K-State, it could be viewed as only fair given the lead K-State had on the rest of the conference in the regular season. Still, it's a mess.

Update, 11:30 CT: The rain's finally passed, and they're removing the tarp from the field. Baylor/OU will get underway at 12:30 CT, which will have the effect of pushing everyone else into the next slot (although they may make an effort to start KSU/Tech at 3:30 and WVU/KU at 6:30 so that OSU/TCU starts at 9:30pm rather than 11pm).

Gonna be a long day, kids.