Cleary University baseball coach Karl Kling envisioned playing a doubleheader today at Cooley Law Stadium in Lansing as a reward for his seniors, the first class with players who have played their entire college careers for the Cougars.
“We didn’t have any place to play home games this year, and we really wanted to give our senior class something,” he said.
The Cougars (10-13) have played all of their games on the road so far this season and were looking forward to a doubleheader with Saint Xavier University of Chicago today.
And then it nearly fell apart.
Saint Xavier had to pull out due to conference commitments, which in this case mandated the school make up a league rainout on the next available Monday, which turned out to be today..
“It put them in a bind,” Kling said, “but it put us in a bind, too.”
So Kling spent the first part of the weekend on the phone calling college coaches “at every level” in the state, he said Sunday night.
“We were able to find a few teams that were interested, and we’re going to play two of them,” he said.
The Cougars will play host to Division II Davenport University for a nine-inning game at 3 p.m., followed by another nine-inning game with Concordia University.
Both games will be broadcast on The Livingston Post, with the first broadcast at 2:45 p.m.
The games will serve as both tests for the Cougars, as they prepare for the USCAA national tournament next month, and a chance to give the half-dozen seniors who have played all four years at Cleary a chance to play at a memorable venue.
“These kids have stuck with it, and it will be hard for me to see them leave,” Kling said. “Not only having some of them start as freshmen, but three of them have played for me (on travel teams) since they were 15, which is eight years we’ve been together.”
It will be a bit of a reunion for Kling, who coached members of both Davenport and Concordia’s coaching staffs during his tenure as Concordia coach a decade ago.
Cleary is also scheduled to play a single game against Robert Morris-Chicago at Comerica Park on April 10.
Davenport University has played Cleary in each of the Cougars’ four seasons, from its days in the NAIA until its recent move to NCAA Division II. Cleary and Concordia are a little more familiar. They played each other in a doubleheader on Friday, winning the first and losing the nightcap in Ann Arbor.
Kling’s busy weekend didn’t end with rescheduling the doubleheader. The Cougars are scheduled to play at Central Michigan on Tuesday, a game moved up a day due to weather concerns. School officials were trying to round up transportation to the game.
It’s all a bit of organized chaos, with teams trying to get games in while outwitting Mother Nature, who forecasters say has snow planned for Wednesday.
‘This time of year, with the way the weather is, that’s a fact of life in college athletics,” Cleary athletic director Ward Mullens said. “That includes having to change dates and wrangle transportation. But we’ve been very fortunate. Everyone’s been very accomodating.”
