DIVISION I BASEBALL WORLD SERIES

Rain, rain go away, with Thursday’s late afternoon‘s scheduled 5 o’clock loser’s bracket game between 2nd-ranked Texas and unseeded, unranked Virginia  not starting until 11:35 at night.

At TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb., the skies emptied early and never let up as the team huddled first in their dugouts and then in their locker rooms while the fans left their seats to head for the stands in the back where they were less drenched and away from the reported lightning in the area.

When they finally made the first pitch, the Longhorns (48-15) batted first and scored twice in the third inning to take the lead, but the Cavaliers (38-25) tied the score on a 2-run home run in the bottom of the fifth. It stayed that way until the 8th when Texas pushed across the lead run and kept Virginia off the scoreboard the final two frames.

The Cavaliers joined the other double-elimination teams, 5th-ranked Arizona, 3rd-ranked Tennessee and 9th-ranked Stanford, to pack up and go home.

But Texas is still in the hunt when it plays undefeated, 2-0, 7th-ranked Mississippi State (46-16) in Friday’s late game, but with early morning rain and lightning reports delaying the noon game pairing the other unbeaten, unseeded North Carolina State (36-18) versus 4th-ranked Vanderbilt (46-16), with the Commodores having to win twice to survive, as do the Long Horns against the 2-0 Bulldogs.

Yes, the nasty weather is again delaying things, and the call is rain, rain go away and keep the lightning away.