The first official day of spring in 2018 was one month ago, on March 20, but that does not mean Mother Nature is listening, even if that is what the calendar says.

Usually, by this point in the year high school baseball and softball teams are in full swing and have already played close to 10 games. Instead, most local teams have struggled to even practice outside on a regular basis — forced to do what they can in a gym or an indoor batting cage.

“We’ve never had a spring this bad,” said Jim Myers, the head varsity softball coach at Brandywine High School. “There’s been a lot of cold weather, and when it hasn’t been cold it’s been raining.”

Thus far, seven out of Brandywine softball’s 10 scheduled games have been canceled, and Myers says it’s likely that his team will only make up two of them. Worst yet, some teams are forced to try and make up canceled games by cramming them into their schedule.

“It is very hard to fine tune hitters and keep pitchers in sequence with a limited number of games early,” said Mike Vota, the head varsity baseball coach at Niles High School. “Arm strength will be a major concern as we start to play games when the weather breaks. Next week, we will most likely have eight games, and this will be a real challenge with a high school pitching staff that has very limited experience. Learning for our team will be more of a ‘baptism by fire,’ as coaching and teaching will take place in game situations.”

Pitching in baseball is a major concern, as young arms are required to rest. Otherwise, they risk serious injury. Coaches may have to dig deep into their rotations in order to get through the next few weeks of games.

The good news for most teams is that pretty much every high school in the area has struggled to practice and play outside. The only teams that might have an advantage are the ones with significant varsity experience.

“Our practices inside have been productive and we have been able to come out of the blocks swinging the bats well,” said A.J. Gaideski, the head varsity baseball coach at Edwardsburg. “We have a veteran group that put a lot of time in during the offseason, so we have not been affected much by the lack of time outside. We have played well, but we can be sharper on the defensive end of the game with more time outside.”

Another difficulty of practicing inside is that most schools have a limited amount of gym space, but multiple baseball and softball teams.

“For practices, I have to coordinate with baseball about using the gym, so sometimes we can go after school and sometimes we may need to go at 5 p.m. while baseball goes after school,” said Mike Behnke, the head varsity softball coach at Dowagiac High School. “Some girls have jobs and other commitments, so going later [than that] may interfere with those.”

Going forward, the weather is expected to improve. According to the Weather Channel at the time of press, highs in Niles are between 52 and 64 degrees Fahrenheit for the foreseeable future. The bad news: rain is predicted next Wednesday.