Mother Nature was not kind this past winter and she has continued to throw some pretty significant wrinkles into the 2014 spring sports season.

Obviously, the sports most affected by the weather's wrath this season have been baseball and softball.Baseball and softball diamonds across the area on most days could be considered better quick sand pits than a place for young athletes to play America's past time.That being said, this is Pennsylvania and this is nothing new.Most years the first week of the baseball and softball season are usually delayed due to weather. However, this time around could be considered the most hampered start to the spring season in a very long time if not ever."This is the worst start to the spring sports season as long as I've been at Jim Thorpe," said Olympians athletic director Dustin McAndrew. "We haven't even been able to work on our baseball field yet and we just played our first home softball game yesterday. It was just a really rough winter. First you have to wait for the snow to melt and then once that happens you have to stop getting nights where the temperature drops below freezing. Right now, we just need the weather to warm up, because our baseball field isn't good, it's almost like a pudding consistency."With all the cancellations and postponed games, scheduling then becomes an issue as well for the athletic directors. Imagine trying to fit a full slate of games into two less weeks than your were originally allotted."We really have to get creative in our scheduling," said Tamaqua athletic director Mike Hromyak. "We're going to be playing four games a week until the end of the regular season. Right now, our league playoffs are set to be played on schedule, but we might end up pushing that back a week as well. Bottom line is that this is frustrating for everyone involved. It's tough on the players, the coaches, and especially the parents, who are always having to change up their schedules when something gets cancelled."A side to all this that some people may not see is the hard work and money that goes into trying to get these fields ready for a game. It's not like what you see on T.V. at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, with guys raking the infield. It takes a lot of man hours just to get the fields in the somewhat decent shape they're in now."The field dry stuff we use is not cheap and if you use 20 bags to get the field where it needs to be then you're looking at nice amount of money," said Hromyak. "Also these maintenance staff guys all around the area really work hard to get these fields ready. They put a lot of extra time in and it sometimes goes unnoticed. "The cold and wet weather this spring hasn't been so easy on the track competitors either. For schools like Panther Valley, that don't have an all weather track, bad weather can certainly have an impact."We were only on our track twice before our first meet," said Panthers athletic director and track coach Kristin Black. "But this is track in the Coal Region; it's cold until districts, leagues and states and that's just the way it goes."It's safe to say that everyone in the TIMES NEWS area is ready for some warm weather in the upcoming weeks, so think positive, and enjoy the rest of the spring sports season.*****CALLING ALL COACHES - Every Thursday during the spring sports season, the TIMES NEWS will publish its annual spring sports notebook reflecting back on the week that was, and highlighting both individual and team accomplishments, as well as interesting information that may have occurred in games, matches or meets. The weekly notebook will cover baseball, softball, tennis, and track and field, and will consist of storylines from the previous seven days (Wednesday-Tuesday). Today's notebook will reflect back on all the happenings from the beginning of the spring sports season up until this past Tuesday. TIMES NEWS sports writer Jason Boris will once again be handling the compilation of notes and is encouraging all local coaches to email him with noteworthy information that can be used in this column. Emails can be sent to

jboris@tnonline.com.*****BASEBALLBIG 33 GAME - It took two days to complete, but on Saturday afternoon, Tri-Valley scored a run in the bottom of the tenth inning to post a 17-16 Schuylkill League victory over Marian. The game started on Thursday, but was called due to darkness after six innings with the game tied at 16-16. When the two team reconvened on Saturday in Hegins, the Colts and Bulldogs played three scoreless innings before Tri-Valley plated the game-winning run. The game featured 121 plate appearances, 93 at bats, 34 hits and 33 runs. The last time 33 or more runs were scored in a TIMES NEWS area baseball game was last season when Bangor defeated Northern Lehigh 22-14 on April 26, 2013. However, the last time there were 33 runs scored in a game involving Marian was April 24, 2002 (236 games ago) when the Colts defeated Nativity by a similar 17-16 score.*****SHUTOUT STREAK - Tamaqua certainly seemed to benefit from its pre-season trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as the Blue Raiders posted three straight shutouts to start their season. With a 1-0 victory over Lehighton, a 6-0 win over Panther Valley and a 10-0 victory over Wyomissing, Tamaqua outscored its first three opponents 17-0. Wilson-West Lawn finally ended the shutout streak over the weekend with a run in the bottom of the first inning.*****HOME RUN KING - Last season, TIMES NEWS Baseball Player of the Brett Kosciolek was king of the long ball with an area best eight home runs. This season, the Tamaqua slugger pick up right where he left off with two home runs in his first three games. Kosciolek belted a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to beat Lehighton and added a two-run shot against Wyomissing. Kosciolek is the only player in the coverage area with multiple home runs to start the season.*****A DOMINICAN BUSINESS TRIP - This summer, Marian senior Peter Baddick has been recruited to join 14 other high school baseball players from across the United States in forming a team that will travel to the Dominican Republic from July 19-25. The team is coached by Dan Hartleb, head baseball coach at the University of Illinois. The trip will allow Baddick to work with a small group of players, Dominican coaches and a Division I baseball coach for the entire week, in addition to playing in a series of games against Dominican players. The Dominican Republic is the world's most dynamic nation in terms of baseball (the Dominican currently puts more players in Major League Baseball, per captia, than any nation including the United States).*****WALK-OFF HITS (PART I) - There have been five walk-off victories by TIMES NEWS area baseball and softball teams already this season. In baseball, a Brett Kosciolek home run in the bottom of the seventh inning propelled Tamaqua to a 1-0 victory over Lehighton, while Northwestern scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat Northern Lehigh 6-5.*****SOFTBALLTHROWING GEMS - Marian's Bethany Schaud has not only led her team to a perfect 3-0 start to the season, but the Fillies pitcher has also fired back-to-back one-hitters against Blue Mountain (11-1) and Freeland MMI (10-0) respectively. In 18 innings pitched, Schaud has allowed just six hits without issuing a walk. The Marian pitcher also has 22 strikeouts on the season.*****EXTRA, EXTRA...READ ALL ABOUT IT - After opening the year with a 3-2 loss to Emmaus, the Northwestern softball team played in three consecutive extra inning games from March 27-April 1. In the first game of that stretch, the Lady Tigers lost 6-5 to Pen Argyl in eight innings. Next, Northwestern picked up its first victory of the season with 2-0 win over Palmerton in eight innings. In its final extra inning affair, Northwestern went 10 innings but ended up dropping an 8-6 decision to Northern Lehigh.*****GRAND SLAM - So far this season, there have been 18 combined home runs from TIMES NEWS area baseball (5) and softball (13) players, but the only grand slam hit so far has come off the bat of Northwestern's Sonny Greenberg. Greenburg cleared the bases in the third inning of a 15-9 victory over Catasauqua on Saturday afternoon. In addition to her grand slam, Greenberg finished the day with three hits.*****HOME RUN DERBY - In last Wednesday's 15-0 victory over East Stroudsburg South, Pleasant Valley hit four home runs, with three of them coming in a nine-run third inning. Brittany Bonser and Chelsea Morales blasted solo home runs, while Jordan Meckes and Kiersten Griesback added three-run shots for the Lady Bears.*****FIVE AND TEN - Pleasant Valley has had an interesting start to its season, as all four of its games have been decided in the fifth inning by the 10-run rule. The Bears dropped their first game of the season to Freedom (10-0), but posted an 11-1 victory over Southern Lehigh, an 11-1 victory over East Stroudsburg North and a 15-0 victory over East Stroudsburg South in its next three contests.*****HIT(S) AND RUN(S) - The Palmerton softball team is just 1-3 this season, but they currently have scored the most runs in a game this season and have had the most hits in a game this season out of all 20 TIMES NEWS-area baseball and softball teams. On April 5, the Lady Bombers scored 19 runs in just five innings in a 19-2 victory over Lehighton. Three days later in a loss to Bangor, Palmerton recorded 20 hits in a seven-inning affair that saw four Lady Bombers with three hits apiece. In that contest, the Bombers carried a 7-3 lead into the seventh inning, but Bangor scored 12 runs in the top of the seventh frame, en route to the 15-11 victory.*****WALK-OFF HITS (PART II) - There have been five walk-off victories by TIMES NEWS area baseball and softball teams already this season. The Tamaqua softball team has already posted two walk-off victories in its first four games. On opening day, Tamaqua rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to take home an 8-7 victory over Lehightion, while seven days later, the Lady Raiders scored a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, en route to a 5-4 victory over Hamburg. Meanwhile, Northern Lehigh accomplished the feat in a 2-1 victory over Catasauqua. Trailing 1-0, the Lady Bulldogs scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Colonial League victory.*****TENNISWHITE HOT - Pleasant Valley started the year by winning its first seven matches, but ended up dropping a 4-3 decision to Stroudsburg on April 2. However, Jon White (Pleasant Valley's No. 1 singles player) has won all nine of his matches this season and is the lone TIMES NEWS tennis players with an undefeated record (9-0). Jon Walmack (Pleasant Valley's No. 2 singles player) is currently 8-1 on the season.*****FIRST WIN - When Jim Thorpe and Palmerton met on the tennis courts on April 3, both teams came into the match with 0-7 records. However, the Olympians were able to pick up their first win of the season with a 4-1 victory over the Bombers. Matt Miller and Luke Eggert both picked up singles victories for Jim Thorpe.*****TRACK AND FIELDBROKEN RECORDS - The track and field season has just started but there have already been two school records either tied or broken in the early going. Northern Lehigh's Jess Olewine tied the school record in the pole vault (8-6) in the April 3 meet against Northwestern. Meanwhile, this past weekend, Jim Thorpe's Jonathan Condly used a strong finish in the last 100 meters of the 3200 to edge Pottsville's Justin Welkie at the fourth annual Tamaqua Blue Raider Invitational. Condly crossed the finish line in 10:22.54 to take the win and break his own school record of 10:25.*****WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS - On Saturday, the Palmerton boys track team won the team championship of the Whitehall Zephyr Relays. Jarred Sacks paced the Blue Bombers with two individual first place finishes in the long jump (19-7) and triple jump (44-4 1/2).*****NASE-LY DONE - There have been dozens of TIMES NEWS area athletes that have won two or three individual eventsat a meet so far this track and field season, but there has only been one athlete to claim four individual first-place finishes in a meet. On March 31 against Schuylkill Haven, Panther Valley's Richard Nase accomplished the feat with wins in the discus (94-8), long jump (20-1), triple jump (37-6) and high jump (5-8). Nase's performance allowed the Panthers to come away with a 73-68 victory over the Hurricanes.*****SAVE THE BEST FOR LAST - In the Marian and Jim Thorpe track meet on March 27, both the boys and girls meets were decided in the final event of the day - the 1600 relay. Trailing 74-71, the Marian boys 1600 relay team (a State qualifier last year) earned a five-point win in 3:41.14 to propel the Colts to a 76-74 victory. Leading 74-70, the Jim Thorpe girls 1600 relay team won in a time of 4:28.64 to capture a 79-70 victory over the Fillies. Should Marian have won that race, the Fillies would have been a one-point victor. Ironically enough, the exact same situation played out five days later in the Pleasant Valley and East Stroudsburg South meet. Down 73-72, the Pleasant Valley boys won the 1600 relay in a time of 3:35.84 to take home a 77-73 victory, while East Stroudsburg South girls rallied from a 74-71 deficit by earning the five-point 1600 relay win in 4:21.83, en route to a 76-74 victory.