At about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday, the sky darkened in Lynchburg, so much so in fact that it looked like 5 p.m. in December, not mid-afternoon in early May.

I put in a call to Hillcats media relations maven/broadcaster Scott Bacon, and he said things didn’t look good, but they were going to do everything they could to get this doubleheader with Myrtle Beach in.

That cloudburst at 3:45, which drenched the area, would under normal circumstances have killed tonight’s game. But because the Hillcats and Pelicans were already rained out Tuesday, the thought of another rainout didn’t sit well with the Hillcats’ brass. That’s understandable. For one, Carolina League rules prohibit the scheduling of doubleheaders on the final day of a series. So if tonight gets “banged,“ that means Lynchburg loses a home game. As you could imagine, Hillcats manager P.J. Forbes isn’t a big fan of that happening. The Hillcats and Pelicans meet just once more during the first half of the season, when the rainout would have to be made up. That series is Jun 15-17 in South Carolina, and the makeup would be played in Myrtle.

So at about 4 p.m., the Hillcat staff got to work. And when I say staff, I mean every able bodied employee at the stadium. Darren Johnson, the Hillcats clubhouse manager, field guru and media home-run derby pitcher, assembled everyone from interns Dane Beakler and Shannon McKain to IT director Andrew Chesser. The pulled the tarp off the infield just to dump excess water on the outfield in hopes that it will dry by game time. Every club employee knows to bring a change of clothes with them to the park every day.

Hillcats general manager Paul Sunwall joked that maybe a helicopter would help dry the field in time.

The concern, of course, is that standing water in the outfield could lead to injuries, and neither parent organization—Atlanta or Pittsburgh—wants to see that happen. So they won’t play if there’s an inherent injury risk.

(4:52 p.m. radar update—band of storms crossing over the Tri-Cities area—Johnson City, Bristol, Elizabethon—into Virginia. Stay tuned.)

By 4:30, Chesser was digging holes with a shovel to funnel standing water along the third baseline, and other employees were scooping the water into buckets. Johnson was in the outfield with a leaf blower, trying to kill excess moisture. And everyone looked to the skies, hoping, pleading for no more rain.

Sunwall said the Hillcats figure five rainouts into the budget a year, and if the Cats lose tonight’s game, that will be three rainouts already.

(Update, Bacon and I just tried to play amateur meteorologist by looking at another radar loop. I shall not quit my day job.)

Losing this home game wouldn’t be a disaster for the Hillcats. Sunwall estimated the team would lose between $5,000-$10,000 in revenue if tonight was bagged.

“Better than July 4,“ he said. That’s generally the Hillcats’ highest attended game.

If the doubleheader does start tonight, they’ll try to get as much of it in as possible. Carolina League rules state that no inning can start later than 1 a.m., so if the second game falls into that window, the game would be suspended and resumed Thursday.

I’ll update when I hear a definitive word on whether the teams will play tonight.

UPDATE—After a long discussion between Sunwall, Forbes, Myrtle Beach manager Rocket Wheeler and the umpires, the game is on. For now at least ...