West Hempfield suspended play in the Westmoreland County American Baseball League over health concerns.
As a result, it had its regular season record wiped away. The team was 4-5 but is now 0-0 and considered the last-place team out of nine in the standings.
A West Hempfield player might have come in contact with someone with covid-19 or related symptoms, an issue that was made transparent to the team and league officials. Immediate action was taken.
West Hempfield’s last game was July 8.
The league, on a one-year hiatus from American Legion play, voted to erase the team’s record, not as a penalty but rather to clear up the playoff situation with West Hempfield sidelined.
West Hempfield, which had no issue with the decision, had seven games remaining. Each team will have 14 games on their record instead of 16.
The top eight teams qualify for the postseason. So West Hempfield will be the ninth-place team and play at eighth-place Mt. Pleasant (1-11) in a wild-card game Sunday — following its quarantine from the league.
The wild-card winner opens a quarterfinal series at 5:30 p.m. Monday at No. 1 seeded Latrobe (12-2).
