Notre Dame baseball team's state semifinal postponed until today

O'FALLON, Mo. -- There isn't much Jeff Graviett hasn't been through in baseball as a player or coach, including rain delays at the final four.

So he understands how his Notre Dame players felt when their Class 4 semifinal final was postponed Thursday afternoon. The Bulldogs will now face Smithville at 10:30 a.m. today.

The championship and third-place games are scheduled for Saturday at a time to be determined.

"I played on a team at Chaffee in '92," Graviett said, recalling his trip to the final four as a player. "I think the first two days we were rained out, so we were in a hotel I think for at least three days before we finally got to play our semifinal game. So I just remember that being a crazy mess and hanging around the hotel playing cards. It was just an all-day rain. We didn't really get to do anything."

Notre Dame arrived in the O'Fallon area, where the final four is being played at T.R. Hughes Ballpark, on Thursday afternoon after electing to travel on game day in order make it "more like a business trip," according to Graviett.

"We hit at Notre Dame this morning, met and had a little send off and headed up this way," he said. "But obviously on the way up here is when all the adjustments started being made. We opted, especially with the early game tomorrow, to keep our plan and stay tonight. Everything's up in the air from there, but one thing -- you've got a baseball group and I've been a baseball coach a long time -- we're kind of used to it. You're at Mother Nature's mercy, so whatever they dish out at you, she's going to win every time. So you've just kind of got to go with the flow."

Graviett said his players have been through postponements and long waits.

"These guys have been on numerous trips out of town," he said. "That's the one thing with the way summer baseball is now with traveling and stuff. They get out and about and they're used to spending time in hotel rooms and kind of know how to react, so that's kind of a bonus to this."

By the time the Notre Dame players step onto the field this morning, which is no guarantee with more rain in the forecast, more than a week will have passed since their quarterfinal victory.

"They were excited and ready to play," Graviett said. "I think most of them are ready to be out there and get it done one way or the other. At the same time, they understand, been through it. They're probably more disappointed with the fact that we've got to get up early in the morning than they were not playing today. We have to make those adjustments and refocus ourselves."