The snowstorm is leaving everything up in the air for this weekend’s America East series between the University of Maine and the New Jersey Institute of Technology at Mahaney Diamond in Orono.
They will be UMaine’s first America East home games after six road contests.
UMaine and NJIT were supposed to play single games at 3 p.m. on Friday, 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday at noon.
Friday has been ruled out.
UMaine director of athletics Jude Killy said the team will not go to NJIT and play the series because of its extensive travel schedule to date and UMaine head coach Nick Derba completely concurred.
“It would be our eighth straight weekend on the road. Our guys need a break. Enough is enough,” said Derba. “The guys are worn out. I’m worn out.”
The travel also invades their academic calendars.
UMaine has spent four weekends in Florida and one apiece in South Carolina, Rhode Island and New York.
Snow removal wouldn’t be a problem, according to Derba, because director of athletic operations Eric Stoup and associate coordinator of athletic grounds operations Brandon Eastman and their crew do an exemplary job clearing the field.
But Killy pointed out that there is an America East rule that forbids games from starting if the temperature feel, including the wind chill, is below 32 degrees.
Derba said the only exception is if there is an upward trend for the temperature to rise after the game starts.
Derba likes the rule because it protects the players.
“(Cold weather) definitely has a (negative) impact on injuries,” said Derba.
According to the weather forecast, Saturday could be a day that would be too cold to play with blustery cold winds dropping the wind chill well under 32 degrees.
Teams are not allowed to play three games in a day so if Friday and Saturday get wiped out, they could play the three games on Sunday and Monday.
Or they could just play two games on Sunday and call it good.
“We want to get in at least two games,” said Derba.
UMaine is 2-4 in the conference and 6-18 overall while NJIT is 3-3 and 10-16.
Following this weekend, UMaine will again hit the road to play the University of Connecticut for a non-conference game on Wednesday and three America East games at UMass Lowell on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
This story was updated to correct that teams are not allowed to play three games in a day.