In all of my years watching college baseball, I have never seen the sun impact a team like it did Holy Cross during practice at Texas. The Crusaders could not see the ball!
They were blinded by the light.
It will be interesting to see whether Northeastern college baseball programs have increased problems with the sun while playing in the South or if this was just a one-off incident. Either way, this becomes an unexpected storyline to watch during the postseason.
The sun is stronger in Texas than Massachussetts.
College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit school located in Worcester, Massachussetts. The 2.6-acre campus sits on top of ‘Mount St. James’ at a latitude of 43.24º N and a longitude of -71.81º W.
The Crusaders played their way into the NCAA Tournament in college baseball with a record of 25-28. They made a miraculous run during the Patriot League Tournament as the No. 4 seed to take down No. 1 Army in the semifinals and No. 2 Bucknell in the championship.
Although Holy Cross earned a spot in the field of 64, it was named as the No. 4 seed in the Austin regional. It will have to play Texas, the sixth-ranked team in the country, in the first round. Assuming that the Crusaders do not pull a historic upset, they will then play the loser of U.C. Santa Barbara and Tarleton State in the loser’s bracket elimination game. An 0-2 result is the most likely outcome but even if they do manage to beat the Texans, they won’t get past the Gauchos or the Longhorns.
I love a Cinderalla story just as much as the next guy but this is not the won.
Neverthless, Holy Cross is guaranteed to play at least two games during the college baseball regional at Fisch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas this weekend. The University of Texas is located at a latitude of 30.29º N and a longitude of -97.73º W. Austin is much closer to the equator than Worcester.
Therefore, scientifically speaking, the sun is stronger at the University of Texas than the College of the Holy Cross. The sun’s rays strike Austin at a more direct angle than Worcester and pass through a thinner layer of the atmosphere, which concentrates solar energy and UV radiation.
Holy Cross was not ready!
The Crusaders played only six games below the Mason-Dixon Line during the 2026 college baseball season. They played at VCU and Florida International in February.
However, the sun is much stronger in May than it is in February and the stadiums faced at an angle to where the glare was not an issue during the second month of the year.
The same cannot be said for Fisch-Falk in late spring. Especially in the middle of the day.
Holy Cross found that out the hard way during its 2:00 p.m. practice on Thursday. The Crusaders allowed a lot of fly balls to drop because they could not see them.
Holy Cross was having trouble finding the ball in the sun on the right side of the field at practive. HC Ed Kahovec told them they need to "figure it out". He's right. The sun will be a problem in their game vs Texas on Friday at noon. It was 2pm during their practice #HookEm pic.twitter.com/86mNRIfK36
— LeVon Whittaker TV (@levonwhitt_tv) May 28, 2026
The sun has not been an issue at the Austin Regional as of this writing but it is a storyline to watch. Especially considering that the entire field was exposed to the elements at first pitch.
A northern college baseball team that had not played a single game in the southernmost quadrant of the United States did not know what to do when it got to Texas. It did not prepare for the sun!!