SAND ROCK – Sand Rock baseball coach Keith Cofield and softball coach Josh Bates kept their eyes on the weather radar Thursday, hoping thunderstorms moving throughout the state would miss Sand Rock, host site of the Cherokee County baseball and softball tournaments.

For a while, things looked promising, but the rains finally reached Sand Rock and forced school officials to cancel Thursday’s action.

Cofield said the baseball tournament’s contingency plan is to play Thursday’s scheduled games – Spring Garden-Sand Rock and Cedar Bluff-Gaylesville – on Saturday, with times to be announced.

Friday’s schedule is still intact, with Cherokee County taking on Sand Rock at 4 p.m., and Cedar Bluff-Spring Garden at approximately 6:15 p.m.

“All day long, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the weather, looking at radar and seeing what was best,” Cofield said. “At first, we were going to try and squeeze one (game) in if we could. Mr. (Ben) East (Sand Rock principal) and I spoke about 2:30 and made a decision after it started raining that it would be in the best interest of the fans and the teams for us to cancel tonight due to the rain.

“We’re going to play Friday’s schedule as planned, and we’re going to make these (Thursday) games up on Saturday. That’s our plan for now. Saturday’s times will change a little, but if something happens where we have rain tomorrow (Friday), we’re going to look at doing a single-elimination tournament Saturday if we get washed out again.”

The Cherokee County Softball Tournament was slated to open with a pair of games Thursday – Gaylesville-Spring Garden at 4:30 p.m., followed by Sand Rock-Cedar Bluff at 6 p.m. Like the baseball tournament, rains put Thursday’s action on hold.

Bates said the softball tournament is still planned for a double-elimination format, but if rain pushes it to Saturday, it will then be single elimination with start times to be announced.

Weather permitting, Friday’s schedule is for Spring Garden and Gaylesville to play at 4 p.m. Sand Rock will then take on Cedar Bluff at 5:30 p.m. The winner of the Spring Garden-Gaylesville game will then take on Cherokee County at 7 p.m.

“We started looking at it (radar) and just made the decision instead of getting everybody here, getting soaked and having to refund tickets, it’d be best to postpone and try to start again tomorrow (Friday) and still play double elimination,” Bates said. “Without playing today, it gives us the option of playing single elimination on Saturday.

“Hopefully we can get it in this weekend. It’s going to be up to what happens tonight and tomorrow.”

As of late Thursday afternoon, an 80-percent chance of thunderstorms is forecast for the area on Friday.