Tempe: Keeping Hydrated

By Jason Owens - June 01, 2007

Nebraska threatened in the fifth inning with two on and two outs and Riverside pitcher James Simmons having control issues, but Jake Opitz popped up after building a 3-1 count to end the inning. Riverside still leads, 7-1.

Before moving into the sixth, the grounds crew took the hoses to the infield to wet down the dry desert dirt. I saw similar conditions in Las Vegas last week at the Mountain West Championship where the dry ground played a huge roll in how the games played out. The crew there only wet down the infield in between games and the hard ground made for some very strange and high bounces that led to more runs than would have been scored under normal conditions. It looks like the grounds crew here wants to keep a more level playing field.