Lights Go Out on Tartan Baseball During Comeback Against Woodbury

On a cold and dreary night, with a steady rain, the baseball team clawed back from a 5-1 deficit against Woodbury, only to see the game suspended because of a lighting failure Thursday at Midway Stadium in St. Paul.  Down by four after Phillip Spock smacked a solo home run in the second, but the Royals added one when they came to bat. In the third inning, however, the Titans busted things open scoring seven runs, with Jacob Jackson knocking in two of them. After four complete innings, one set of field lights in the home stadium of the St. Paul Saints failed.  After a brief discussion, the game was suspended and will be finished at a later date.

Woodbury coach Kevin McDermott said he's been involved in plenty of contests where rain stopped things. He even played in a game in college that was called because of a bench-clearing brawl. "The umpires just split," he said.

But this was the first time he's been in a game called by lights going out.

"(The groundskeeper) said, 'I can't do anything about it,' and put his hands up in the air," McDermott said. "It was disappointing, but it was certainly not a good night for baseball."

It was the first trip to Midway Stadium for these players, McDermott said, and he hoped the experience reduced some of the "awe factor" should the team win a few playoff games and head back to the St. Paul ballpark later this year.

"The rain probably took some of the excitement away," he said. "But we gained some things from this experience and I hope to do it again."

The coaches are still trying to figure out the exact ruling, but he assumes the game will pick up where it left off. The game will likely be finished on an upcoming Saturday, he said.

Tartan rented the field for the game, and McDermott said he expects the team will get some sort of discount.