With Spring Arriving, High School Athletes Finally Getting Outside

MINNETONKA, Minn. (WCCO) -- Finally, after weeks of waiting, spring has sprung in Minnesota.

And high school sports can get underway. Baseball, softball and track teams have already lost about half their season because of soggy, snowy fields.

Now, as their fields dry off, those athletes should be able to return to practices games and outside.

WCCO's Molly Rosenblatt was in Minnetonka on Tuesday, where the Hopkins baseball team took the field to face Robbinsdale Cooper.

Earlier this month, the Minnesota State High School League allowed shorter baseball and softball games this season because of the unseasonably cool weather. By mutual agreement, teams now can play two 5-inning games in a doubleheader format for the rest of this season only.

Single games still must be played under the national rules, requiring seven-inning games or until a regulation game is completed.

"We would clean the field off and get to the point where we were going to play and it would dump 12 inches on us again. This is our third time where we've gotten the field ready so we're hoping it sticks now," Jason Mihalakis, head baseball coach at Hopkins High School, said.