Tornado threat postpones game vs. Washington

By Greg Lewis

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

OKLAHOMA CITY”“ Growing up in tornado country, Washington
head coach Teresa Wilson was all too familiar with Friday
night’s events, which included tornado warnings that
postponed the Huskies’ game against UCLA until the next
morning.

Five and a half innings into the second round of the College
World Series, the umpire stopped the game.

While other teams scrambled into the underground media lounge,
and eventually drove back to their hotels, Wilson kept her team
calm and decided that staying in the bunker-like media room was the
safest place in the city.

“I thought that going back to the lobby of the hotel with
all that glass around wasn’t the best idea,” she said.
“I just wanted my girls to be safe.”

“Growing up in Missouri, I saw my fair share of
tornadoes,” she added. “I know what they can do. I know
that here (in the media room) is probably the safest place in the
city. You either want to be underground, or on the bottom side of a
hill.”

Wilson’s relaxed approach seemed to work. While Oklahoma
and Southern Mississippi gathered in the underground room and eyes
glazed over in unfamiliarity, the Huskies were calm and
collected.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Washington shortstop
Jaime Clark said, joking. “Bases loaded ““ and a tornado
comes.”

Each team had its own reaction. UCLA, hoping to maintain focus
in case the game did restart, stayed apart from everybody else in
the grounds crew storeroom. As Oklahoma and Southern Mississippi,
the two teams set to play following the UCLA-Washington game,
gathered in the media room, the Bruins were isolated from
distractions.

It seemed that nobody wanted to talk about the game.

“I’m not in a softball mode, I’m in a
“˜tornadic’ mode,” Oklahoma head coach Patty Gasso
said at the NCAA’s makeshift underground press
conference.

In the end, nobody doubted that the NCAA did the right thing.
Information gathered from the local weather stations, the police
scanner and the National Weather Service (located in Oklahoma City)
indicated that there was a possibility the tornado would come close
to the stadium.

“I think the city was smart. That was the best thing for
them to do,” said UCLA head coach Sue Enquist. “This
city has been through a lot in the past year.”

Looking at the damage 20 miles south of the stadium from last
May’s F-5, the most powerful type of tornado, it is obvious
why the NCAA took a stay-safe-now, worry-about-softball-later
approach.

Just down the road, the NCAA regional baseball tournament, also
featuring UCLA and Oklahoma, waited until 11:30 p.m. to resume its
game. There, the NCAA had a time conflict with the return of the
minor league team that shares the ballpark, but they did make sure
the conditions were absolutely safe before resuming play.

UCLA was ready for the tornado. Having participated in all nine
of the Bruins’ national championships, Enquist knows how
important preparing for every possible situation can be.

“This is something we talked about before we got
here,” Enquist said after the completion of the Washington
game. “It was eerie, this is exactly what we prepared
for.”

UCLA went on to beat the top-ranked Huskies when the game
restarted at 9 a.m. Washington was forced to play again that night
at 9:30 p.m.

“Now we’ll have a chance to rest,” Wilson said
after the loss. “We’re going to go back to the hotel
and get some rest. I think we’ll get a good meal,
too.”

The lack of rest clearly took its toll on Washington, which
stayed at the stadium longer than any other team. The Huskies went
on to lose 4-2 to Arizona, giving up more runs than in any of their
previous postseason games.