Sunday, September 15, 1996

Rain postpones PDogs' bid for title
By LANCE FLEMING
Staff Writer

The rain that plagued the Abilene Prairie Dogs the last few weeks of the regular season on Saturday returned and postponed their date with the league championship.

Game 3 of the Texas-Louisiana League Championship Series - which Abilene leads 2-0 over Lubbock - was postponed Saturday night because of heavy rain. The third game of the best-of-five series will be played tonight at 7:05 p.m. at Scott Field.

All tickets that were purchased for use Saturday may be used tonight, and college students can get in for $1 if they present a valid student ID at the gate.

Lance Schuermann (13-0, 3.32 ERA) will probably get the start on the mound tonight for Abilene, although he might be a little bit sore. He and shortstop Scott Bethea were involved in an automobile accident Saturday afternoon when the car they were in was rear-ended.

Neither suffered any major injuries in the accident.

Lubbock is scheduled to send Steve Duda (11-8, 3.76 ERA) to the mound.

The rain only served to put off what has seemed inevitable for most of the season: A league championship for the Prairie Dogs, who were 67-31 in the regular season, swept Amarillo 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs and have taken a 2-0 series lead over Lubbock.

But now they have to wait another day - and possibly more if the forecast for more rain today holds true - to claim their long-awaited championship.

"It's frustrating," said Abilene manager Phil Stephenson, who saw his team sit through a slew of rainouts and rain delays over the last two weeks of the regular season. "Nobody likes to sit around and wait, especially in a championship series. Guys are getting anxious to win this thing and get home."