After a long and painful winter that seemed like it would never end, the snow is finally starting to melt, and baseball season is here. It’s a surefire sign of spring.

Unfortunately for the American International College baseball team, fresh off their spring break trip to Florida, they haven’t had an opportunity to get some home cooking going since then.

And, they’ve only played twice, both on the road, since returning home from sunny Florida.

While Richard F. Bedard Field at the AIC sports complex isn’t buried under several feet of snow anymore, the field is nowhere near playable, with several ice spots, some remaining snow, and plenty of puddles.

According to the schedule on aicyellowjackets.com, three of the Yellow Jackets’ home games have been postponed, with another being switched to a road game.

With more wet conditions possible for this weekend to go along with the already soggy conditions of the baseball field, there could be even more cancellations on the way.

AIC Athletic Director Matt Johnson says that there isn’t a whole lot that can be done at this point.

“It has just been a waiting game. Since there was a 6-8 inch layer of ice buried underneath the snow, there wasn’t much that we could do to expedite things,” said Johnson. “We are hoping that, with a little luck, the fields will be ready by Easter weekend.”

The athletic department is also having some trouble trying to shift games to other fields in the Springfield area, since obviously, AIC can’t be the only school with this predicament.

“We are actively looking for other fields to play games,” Johnson stated, adding that there are only a select amount of fields actually in game shape right now. “Additionally, those facilities are charging extremely high rental fees,” he noted.

Apparently, those who create the schedule didn’t take into account that we live in New England, where there is a good chance that snow could stick around until, well, right about now. But on the other hand, schedules from the four previous seasons indicate only one March home game being postponed, with another being moved off-site.

As for the schedule, Johnson says that “all options are on the table right now. We have discussed canceling all non-conference games, or canceling cross-divisional games.” If worse comes to worst, the playoff schedule may have to be adjusted, or even eliminated.

The baseball Yellow Jackets aren’t the only springtime team running into scheduling difficulties. The softball field is also in shaky condition, and Johnson is hoping that field is ready around Easter weekend as well. He also mentioned that three games in one day isn’t out of the realm of possibilities for the softball team.

As for the actual baseball team itself, despite the iffy weather and field conditions here at home, they have managed to squeeze in 11 games so far, nine of them down south in Florida.

Despite a 3-8 overall record, the Athletic Director is ready and looking forward to the season getting into a rhythm sooner rather than later. Johnson is looking forward to watching the Jackets baseball team transition into a team that is a little more productive at the plate.

“[I’m excited to] watch our guys swing the bats. Over the past 3-4 years, we were known as a pitching team. We had some good young arms, but struggled a bit at the plate,” Johnson said, adding, “this year, our coaching staff is very excited about our ability to swing the bats. They think that we are going to score many more runs than previous years and keep things entertaining.”