Fredonia pitcher Nick Whitfield starts his windup during a league game at Chautauqua Lake last year. Whitfield was expected to be Fredonia’s go-to pitcher in CCAA West 1 league games this year. OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen.

What a difference a year makes.

A year ago, the biggest worry for baseball and softball teams across Western New York was whether or not Mother Nature would spoil their plans for any given afternoon. Now, teams are stuck wondering if there will even be a season at all. The COVID-19 pandemic has spoiled the spring sports season so far for athletes all across the country.

Today, you should have been reading a story about a CCAA Division 1 West clash between Falconer and Fredonia, as each team would have been starting its second half of the league schedule. Wednesday, April 29 represented the fifth of eight league games for each team.

Instead, now the focus is on whether a league season can even be salvaged if in-person school comes back at all this year. Already with the postseason scrapped, from sectional tournaments to state championships all cancelled, a league title is the biggest goal left for any local teams to aspire toward. Sadly, what may be more realistic to hope for is any season at all.

Earlier in this spring-sports-season-turned-offseason, Fredonia senior Anthony Gullo said this about the situation he, like all other seniors, has been forced into: “I have been looking forward to my senior year of baseball since I began managing the Fredonia team in 2013. Everything I have done has been in preparation for this season. I hear my father talk endlessly about the memories he had in his final high school season. He would always tell me ‘When you meet up with your buddies in 15 years, this is what you will talk about, high school sports.’ … It’s devastating that there is a possibility I’ll never be able to make those memories.”

His sentiments ring true to all the seniors across Chautauqua County and beyond. The waiting game everyone has been pushed into has become more and more emotionally taxing as each day passes. We can only hope a resolution comes some day soon.