As you all know by now, the league is persistently challenged each spring by the weather in the playing of our games. I wanted to give everyone an idea of how our decisions to play games are made so that you can communicate this to your team parents.

Please understand that the fields are an asset to the township and are treated as such. As general rule, if the fields have standing water on them or the infield is soft enough that a footprint is visible after standing on the soil, the fields are considered unplayable. As a rule of thumb, if there are puddles on the streets, the fields will likely have water on them and may not be playable. Also, please keep in mind that each field handles water differently. Field A3 is the most resilient; followed by A6, A5 and then A4. Situations may exist where we may cancel games on some fields but not all based on the individual field conditions.

There are three scenarios the league must deal with in making decisions:

Persistent, overnight or morning rain
If the weather prevents the Ewing Twp Parks department from prepping the fields for our games (normally happens in the morning), in all likelihood, the fields will be closed by the township and we will not be allowed to play our games. EGSA is granted permits to the fields by the township and they can tell us to stay off the fields if they believe that using the fields will cause the fields harm in the long term. The township will normally notify of this situation by 2:00 pm and we will update the website as soon as we receive notification.

Early or mid afternoon storms
It is fairly common that the fields are prepped by the township in the morning and then we experience a heavy storm in the early or mid afternoon. In this situation, the decision to play games is left to EGSA in cooperation with the Mercer County Umpires Association. A decision will be made by 4:30 pm (the time we need to inform the umpire scheduler) after one or two board members have inspected the fields and we will update the website immediately.

Late afternoon storms
Last but not least, we may experience a heavy storm in the late afternoon after the 4:30 pm deadline. In this situation, the decision to play games is left to the umpires at the fields at the start of the game. Each individual umpire has absolute discretion in allowing a game to be played in this scenario. One umpire may differ in opinion about the condition of his/her field and can decide that the conditions are unsafe for play at any time. This can happen before or during a game.

In every case, we will do our best to inform you as early as possible about the game status but if you do not receive a notice about the games by 4:45 pm, you should expect that the games are on.