Monks Set to Host Thomas, In Spite of Recent Snow

Standish, ME - When Saint Joseph's College baseball coach Will Sanborn arrived at Larry Mahaney Diamond shortly before 7:00 this morning, he wasn't quite sure his Monks would be playing later today. Moments later, when groundskeeper Jason Chisholm met with the coach, they surveyed a field blanketed by a little more than two inches of snow.

A day earlier, the Monks baseball program had been featured on www.d3baseball.com for their ability to get the field ready to play five games earlier in the week. Add to that the two men, along with the entire roster of players, had put down nearly a ton of black sand to draw in sun to induce melting on Friday and their decision became easy. "We figured we might as well take a shot at it," said Sanborn. "Even if we came up short today we would be ready to play tomorrow."

Less than an hour later, the players arrived, shovels in hand ready to begin a tedious snow removal process for the third time in less than two weeks. As the sun peeked through the clouds, the black sand began to do its magic, playing a game today began to look like a reality. "Today has been our biggest challenge by far" said Chisholm as he took a rare water break. "We cleared most of the infield dirt yesterday, but it was really wet. I knew the surface would be ready by this afternoon. Without the players and Will really committing to this, there is no way a game could be played here this weekend."

At noon today, with the field becoming more and more playable, the decision was made to push the start time for the NAC doubleheader back to 4:00 p.m. Though it is unclear as to how many other local teams will be playing, one thing is for sure; snow is no match for this team.

St. Joe's will host Thomas College this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. in the Monks' North Atlantic Conference opener. St. Joseph's will be sending senior Sam Tupper (Yarmouth, ME) to the mound in game one and rookie Andrew Keirstead (Westbrook, ME) in the nightcap.