They did it again. For the second consecutive week, a Texas playoff series will be played in Oklahoma City, for no particularly good reason.
Say what you will about Texas' University Interscholastic League, but they are consistent about one thing: They either don't read -- or don't care about -- any of the criticism of their methods, both here at Prep Rally and elsewhere.
That was made readily apparent this week when the association which sanctions all official Texas sports watched yet another 2011 postseason series to be scheduled to be played in Oklahoma City, hours from the schools which will play there. Evidently criticism of exactly that move from the Dallas Morning News, Amarillo Globe-News and here at Prep Rally never reached the UIL's radar.
According to the Morning News, Canyon (Texas) Randall High, which won a softball series against Lake Dallas (Texas) High last weekend in Oklahoma, again finds itself traveling out of state for a bi-district playoff matchup. Friday's opponent -- in baseball rather than softball -- is The Colony (Texas) High, a school almost as far from Oklahoma City as was Lake Dallas.
To the credit of both schools, the site for this weekend's matchup is a bit more grandiose and inspiring, with Bricktown Ballpark, home of the AAA Oklahoma Redhawks, serving as the setting for the best-of-three series.
And unlike the Randall-Lake Dallas series, which was forced to set up a prospective Monday decisive game because of a scheduled prom, any decisive third game in this series will be played on Saturday afternoon at the same site that is hosting the first two games on Friday.
That still seems like small justification for moving a playoff series some 3.5-4.5 hours each way from both teams that will be competing there. At this point, all one can hope is that diehard Randall fans have gotten to know all the best rest stops between Canyon and Oklahoma City, no matter how unlikely a trip that might be for them after this weekend.
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