The Vicksburg Venom easily defeated two opponents on Saturday.

It seems no one at the Governor’s Cup can get a handle on Mother Nature.

Moments after the Venom beat the Clinton Arrows, 9-0, in an 11-year-olds’ Cup game, lightning filled the skies and torrential rains flooded the fields at Halls Ferry Park. More than an inch of rain fell in less than 30 minutes, bringing Saturday’s action to a halt and casting doubt on whether this weekend’s schedule will be finished.

If the fields can be made ready in time, the tournament was tentatively scheduled to restart at 8 a.m. today. More storms were forecast for today, however, and more rain Saturday night continued to deluge the fields.

“I know I’ve got guys that are willing to work. But if there’s no way it’s going to work, you don’t want to get part of the day in and have to stop,” tournament director Jeff Collins said. “We’ll be out here as late as we need to tonight. We can at least move some water off them.”

The heavy storm that moved through around 3:30 p.m. Saturday wreaked havoc on Halls Ferry Park. A veritable flash flood swept through the dugouts at Bazinsky Field, which was hosting the 14-year-olds’ tournament. Almost two feet of water overwhelmed storm drains in the dugout and had players and coaches scurrying atop the benches to escape.

The Bazinsky Park softball fields, which were hosting the 8-year-olds’ tournament, were swamped. Collins said no amount of work would make them ready in time to finish the tournament today, and he and other tournament organizers were trying to come up with an alternate plan. The remaining games could be moved to the Culkin Athletic Complex, the large Babe Ruth Field at Halls Ferry Park, or canceled.

“They’re done,” Collins said of the softball fields. “I’m pretty sure they’re done. It’s like a river of water running through them.”

On top of the hill, at the main portion of the Halls Ferry complex, it was more like an ocean. Nearly every field had standing water in the outfield and infield, or in the dugouts. A gust of wind flipped a small tent up and over the concession stand. No one was hurt.

Although the tournament was tentatively set to resume early this morning, Vicksburg Parks and Recreation director Joe Graves said it would likely take several hours of work — and dry weather — to get the fields ready.

Collins said a final decision on whether to continue play or not wouldn’t be made until this morning.

“As a whole, I think most teams want to play tomorrow if possible,” Collins said.

Enough teams were able to play on Friday night and Saturday that the weekend won’t be a total loss. Most age groups made it through the pool play portion of their respective tournaments, with 33 total games completed on Saturday.

All of Friday night’s scheduled games were completed, and every team had played two games before play was halted.

Two of Saturday’s games involved the Venom, who clinched one of the top seeds in the 11-year-olds’ bracket by beating the Forest Hill All-Stars 11-4 and the Clinton Arrows 9-0.

Will Pierce slugged two homers and had four RBIs in the first game, while Tyler Smith added a solo shot during an eight-run first inning.

Against Clinton, the Venom took a more opportunistic approach. They scored five of their nine runs on passed balls or wild pitches, and put the game away with a six-run fourth inning to win by the mercy rule.

Pierce added an RBI double against Clinton, Landon Little hit a solo home run, and Dale Griffith pitched two innings of no-hit ball. Smith finished up on the mound, giving up one hit, one walk and no runs in two innings of relief.

“We ran the bases pretty good, pretty aggressively,” Venom coach Eric Smith said. “We took a lot of opportunities that were given to us.”

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com