The CT Softball Blog

One of the best things about sports, educationally speaking, are the life lessons that are learned. Every day, every week, every year.

From the T-ball ranks to 10U travel, from high school varsity to the college ranks, the learning never stops. The lessons simply never stop.

Perhaps the biggest lesson of all is the fact that life simply isn’t fair.

It really is that plain and simple, isn’t it?

Teammates make errors. Umpires are human and make mistakes. And sometimes those in charge make decisions that leave you scratching your head and asking, “How is that fair?”

On Sunday, the University of Bridgeport softball program was supposed to play the Wilmington University Wildcats for the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship down in New Castle, Delaware.

The Knights had beaten Wilmington, 4-2, on Friday to advance to the CACC championship game. Later that afternoon, Wilmington ousted Goldey-Beacom to stay alive in the tournament and force a rematch against Bridgeport.

Wilmington won that game 8-0 over Bridgeport to set up Sunday’s winner-take-all championship game in the double-elimination tournament.

Then the rains came.

No big deal, right?

Springtime in New England and rain showers wreak havoc with schedules all the time. Spring trips to Florida are a haven for late afternoon rainfall. What’s a little rain on a Delaware afternoon in May?

When a championship game rolls around and the rains come, you simply postpone things, right? Play later that afternoon because when the title tilt is schedule to start at 9:30 a.m., the weather could dry up a bit (as it did, according to the Weather Channel app). Or maybe you just postpone it to the next day.

At the very least you postpone it a day, right?

Nope! Not in the CACC.

The Purple Knights drove home from New Castle, Delaware, on Sunday afternoon without the conference championship trophy simply because the tournament was “cancelled.”

That’s right. It rained in Delaware on Sunday morning.

The Knights were told to head home. Tournament over. Wilmington, as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, was given the championship trophy.

But let’s face it … the Wildcats didn’t earn it. They had to beat Bridgeport one more time to earn it. Bridgeport had to beat Wilmington one more time to earn it.

Championships need to be earned.

I reached out to the CACC on Sunday afternoon to find out the obvious question: Why?

Dan Mara, the commissioner of the CACC, got back to me within minutes.

“Very simple. There is an AQ (automatic qualifier) deadline. 4pm Sunday,” Mara wrote in an e-mail. “The field was unplayable despite numerous attempts. Rain continued all day. Decision was made with input from both coaches.”

Life is not fair. Rarely is it, am I right?

As a former athlete, I know this is not fair to the UB players. Or for the Wilmington team, who I know wanted to earn this win, this title, this NCAA berth. As a former coach, I know this. As an athletics administrator, I know this.

Bridgeport beat Wilmington. Wilmington beat Bridgeport.

This one game was for all the marbles, for a championship! For a berth in the NCAA Division II championship tournament.

What a championship game it could have been.

It’s a moment that MUST be earned. Not handed to a team because it rained.

Yet it was decided that the Wildcats of Wilmington, who had a great regular season with a 40-14 overall record and a 20-2 conference record, would be crowned the champs.

Bridgeport? Hey, look at the bright side: The Interstate-95 has re-opened in Norwalk, so you’ll get home quicker than you expected.

Hindsight, as they say, is 20-20 and obviously building in a championship game rain-day scenario would have been nice.

Bottom line: The University of Bridgeport got screwed.

Now let me digress by saying this: I am not saying the CACC is playing favorites with Wilmington. Truth be told, the CACC is based out New Haven. And those who work for the league always want to do best for the athletes who represent the schools that represent the league.

The CACC, given the schedule, simply was handcuffed by the AQ deadline, as explained by the commissioner.

So, Bridgeport, welcome to second place, even though you had the talent and the momentum (an 18-4 record in April and May) to win it all.

Sorry, Knights, you don’t get the chance to win the whole thing and hold that trophy high over your head.

Here is the official word from the folks at UB, via the school’s website.

“Due to rain cancelling the final winner-take-all game on Sunday, the University of Bridgeport’s softball team finished as runners-up at the 2024 CACC Championships. Wilmington University, as the top seed, was given the CACC’s at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament … The Purple Knights will now have to wait for the NCAA’s Selection Show to see if they will receive an at-large bid into the ‘Big Dance.’ UB’s NCAA resume features an exceptional strength of schedule, a 27-21 overall record and a mark of 25-11 against in-region opponents. The Purple Knights also own wins over Wilmington (No. 1 in the region) and SNHU (fifth in the region) this season. They also posted three victories over Caldwell (No. 10 in the region).”

Ah, life lessons.

From the first time these girls picked up a bat and put their tiny little hands into a glove as youth players, they learned life wasn’t fair. And they learned that life lesson through their chosen sport. Softball.

The CACC proved that once again on a gray, overcast, rainy Sunday afternoon that life isn’t fair.

The University of Bridgeport softball team came home on Sunday without a league championship. And that’s because they were denied the chance of winning of it outright.

It was the wrong decision, but one the league had to make given the scenario laid out before them. As our players and coaches are always learning from mistakes, we can only hope the CACC learns from this and in 2025 builds a rain-day scenario into its schedule.

After all, championships deserve to be won on the field, not on a weather radar, or a deadline set forth by an organization (tThe NCAA) that has its own problems.

But life isn’t fair.

We learn it as 10U travel players. We are reminded it off it even at the college level.

(‘From The Dugout’ is an occasional column written by CT Softball Blog Publisher John Nash, a longtime sports journalist and high school varsity and travel softball coach).

Love Stories Like This?

Get Connecticut’s best softball features, breaking news, recruiting updates and exclusive interviews delivered to your inbox every Friday morning. Subscribe to the CT Softball Blog Weekly.