It wasn’t exactly a highly-contested HVL game, but the Hayfield baseball team was able to get out and compete on Friday.

With the team spending just a half hour outside so far this spring — and that was on the football field — the Vikings took a break and held an intersquad whiffleball tournament for seventh through 12th graders. Hayfield sophomore Jake Risius had his moment to shine when he hit a game-tying homer that sparked his team to a championship win. It was a small victory, but it was a reason for him and his teammates to smile.

“It’s pretty great to be on the winning team, that’s what we’re all about here,” Risius said. “We’re just mixing it up and trying to keep it fun right now.”

Hayfield’s situation is all to familiar for area teams this spring as teams have been cooped up indoors as temperatures have dipped and snow has continued to fall well into April. Hayfield senior Zach Nelson said he’s had to be patient, but it’s tough to miss out on a lot of time in his final season with the Vikings.

Still, the team has made the best of it.

“We dance a lot. There’s a lot of music in practice,” Nelson said. “Hopefully we can play real games soon. They say it goes by fast, and when it goes by in a month it goes by a whole lot faster.”

Hayfield head coach Kasey Krekling said the spring has been a grind for all teams this season. Now as the weather begins to clear, the Vikings, like many other teams, have a log-jammed schedule ahead of them. Krekling said the team is hoping to play 19 games in about one month once things get started.

“You can’t control the weather. We can control our attitudes and how we’re facing the situation. Everyone’s in the same boat,” Krekling said. “It was good to get all of the guys together and split them up randomly [for the whiffleball tournament today]. Hopefully it gets nicer and this was our farewell to indoor practices.”

It’s not uncommon for spring sports athletes to get stuck in the gym for a stretch of time as they wait for the father to cooperate, but this year cabin fever is reigning supreme. Only a handful of squads played in a single contest.

With unseasonably cold temps and a few April snowstorms, the spring season has been put on hold. Austin High School Activities Director Lisa Quednow hasn’t seen anything quite like this before.

“I’ve been doing this for 20 years at various levels and this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Quednow said. “You can only run the halls so many days in a row before it gets old. It’s been really ridiculous.”

While AHS has the dome, it has had to be creative to keep some athletes invested. Teams have worked on basics and conditioning, they’ve played some dodge ball and the Packer track and field athletes even broke down and did some snow angels on the track earlier this week.

“They’re looking for any glimmer of anything. It’s been rough,” Quednow said. “I just feel bad for the kids, especially the seniors who are excited. We’ll have a great spring season, but we’d rather not do it in one month.”

When teams do begin playing games, the schedule will jump from a snail’s pace to a sprint. With postseasons in various sports scheduled for mid to late May, there will be a lot of contests packed into a short period of time.

There is also the issue of non-competition days like awards ceremonies, concerts and prom.

Quednow said that non-conference games may be dropped and it will be tough for every team to play out its whole schedule, even with the MSHSL allowing teams to play doubleheaders of two five-inning games each.

“I just don’t think it’s going to happen. We can’t be taking kids out of school every day,” Quednow said. “We might have to talk about what we’re going to do.”

Without a dome to get their athletes in, smaller schools have suffered as much as anyone this spring. In Blooming Prairie High School, the softball team finally saw its first action when it played under the dome in Austin Friday night, but the other spring teams have been stuck inside. The Awesome Blossoms brought their track and field team to Austin to have a snow day on Skinner’s Hill Wednesday and the school held a dodge ball tournament for all spring sports athletes earlier this week. BP also competed in a bowling tournament with the other Gopher Conference baseball teams in Waterville.

BP athletic director Ali Mach said she’s never seen weather this bad for this long in a single spring sports season.

“This is by far the worst I’ve ever seen,” Mach said. “The kids have been good. They’ve been working hard. From my observations the coaches have done a nice job keeping kids engaged and keeping practices shorter. They’ve been consistent, but they’ve allowed it to be fun.”

Mach said the school has looked to keep athletes busy without burning them out with indoor practices. She likes what BP’s coaches have done this spring.

“I’m pretty proud of our coaches and the efforts they’ve put in to keep the kids engaged,” Mach said. “We’ll be ready when the time comes.”