The Gateway baseball team played at McKeesport yesterday afternoon and stayed at McKeesport's field to play Central Catholic. Then at night, Gateway was scheduled to play its third game of the day -- at home against Penn Hills.

Greensburg Salem was scheduled to play at 4 p.m. yesterday at home against Derry. Then, Greensburg Salem was to get on a bus and go to Homer-Center for a 7:30 p.m. game against Indiana.

Those are some of the strange but true scheduling stories in WPIAL baseball the past few days. April showers have brought May headaches for athletic directors and coaches in Western Pennsylvania.

Many baseball teams and some softball teams had so many games postponed during the season that they had to play doubleheaders -- and maybe a tripleheader -- the past few days in order to finish their seasons on time. The WPIAL mandated all baseball section games be finished today. Softball section games had to be finished yesterday. Some teams were scheduled to play four games in two days.

The playoffs for both sports will start Monday or Tuesday.

"This is the worst spring we've had in my 19 years as athletic director. I've never had to change so many games," said Shady Side Academy athletic director Gene Deal.

South Fayette athletic director Joe Farkas said: "When it rained, it rained hard so many times that your field wasn't ready the next day. I've never seen this much rain in my 19 years."

In reality, this April has been less wet than usual. According to readings at the Pittsburgh International Airport, rainfall in April was 2.31 inches, 0.7 of an inch less than normal.

Some coaches, athletic directors and WPIAL executive director Tim O'Malley believe some schools are at fault for getting backed up with so many baseball games.

"How do you explain some sections being almost done with all of their games and some others are so far behind?" O'Malley said. "Softball is almost caught up, too. I think some schools became so complacent during the year and could have played makeup games some days, but didn't."

O'Malley and some coaches also believe some baseball teams won't schedule makeup games for certain days because of pitching rotations and rules. For example, a team tries to save its No. 1 pitcher for a certain game. Under PIAA and WPIAL rules, a pitcher can pitch only 14 innings in a week and needs at least three days' rest if he pitches six or more innings.

"We can't legislate integrity," O'Malley said.

The four WPIAL baseball championship games are set for May 26-27 at Consol Energy Field in Washington. The league wants to play the semifinals by May 21 so that teams can have their No. 1 pitchers ready for the championship games.

"Myself, I'm not real into the ins and outs of the pitching rules," said Gateway athletic director Terry Smith. "We've just been at the mercy of the weather and our field conditions. We don't have a tarp to cover our field and it doesn't drain well."