Championship Sunday – 5A Baseball

It was a crazy Sunday, I was scheduled to shoot the 5A Baseball state championship game at Turchin Stadium in New Orleans at 10am. I awoke in the morning to a torrential down pour at my home in Hammond, Louisiana so I switched on the TV to check the news, and saw a live interview for the Gulf Aid concert that was going to take place in New Orleans during the interview it was mentioned it is dry in the CBD in New Orleans, I checked the radar, and it appeared that rain was close but would possibly miss the New Orleans area so I got on with the drive down to the game. Well apparently while one part of New Orleans was dry just several miles away heavy rains were flooding the area and I was completely unaware.

I drove down towards New Orleans and it was raining almost the entire way but nothing severe until I got about two miles from the stadium when it began pouring rain so hard that I could barely see what was in front of me on the road, shortly there after as I arrived at the stadium I found there was no road near the stadium off S. Claiborne Ave, just water, I barely able to navigate the road to get my vehicle to high ground the sidewalk.

After walking into the stadium I discover that the championship game has been postponed until 5pm that evening, despite the wait for the game there were some photos opportunities, the field was flooded as well as the dug outs and since I was stuck there with the roads flooded I decided to get some photos of the flooding, because the way it was looking I didn’t think there would be a game that day and if there was no game that would be the story of the day.

May 16, 2010 – Heavy rains flooded the dug out and postponed the start of the LHSAA 5A baseball championship game between Lafayette and Catholic on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at Greer Field in Turchin Stadium in New Orleeans, La. (Photo by: Derick Hingle)

As luck would have it, the rain cleared out and thanks to an all artificial turf field what looked like a lake was drained in a few short hours. It was the first baseball field I ever saw without dirt, none around the bases, no dirt at home plate, the only dirt on the field was the pitching mound and the warm up mounds. If the field had been a grass field the game would have certainly been postponed but with the water all gone, the game finally got underway at 5pm.

May 16, 2010 – A general view during the LHSAA 5A baseball championship game between Catholic and Lafayette on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at Greer Field in Turchin Stadium in New Orleeans, La. (Photo by: Derick Hingle)

Below are a few of the frames and a gallery of images I liked from the championship game, including the photo that ran on the front page of the Monday morning sports page of The Advocate. Read the game story here.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 17th, 2010 at 8:56 pm and is filed under High School Sports, On Assignment and tagged with 5A, athlete, athletics, baseball, Bears, Catholic, Catholic High Bears, catholic high school, celebration, Derick Hingle, DH Photography, high school, Lafayette, LHSAA, Mighty Lions, New Orleans, photojournalism, playoffs, sports, state championship, Tulane, Turchin Stadium. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.