That was a late one

I'm used to working some pretty late nights, but never have I covered a baseball game that lasted until 2 a.m. Of course, an 11:30 p.m. start time will do that.

Waupun lost in a WIAA Division 2 state semifinal, 8-6, to West De Pere on Wednesday night/Thursday morning at Fox Cities Stadium, and although neither team blamed the late start for any sloppy play, there's no way it could have helped.

Although, I suppose everything about playing in the state tournament is so far from the norm that the starting time doesn't really matter.

I know it had an effect on me. We have a nightly deadline of 2:30 a.m. for the newspaper, meaning there are very few events we struggle to get in the paper. But when the middle innings started to drag, I realized that there was no way I'd be able to get a full story with quotes in the paper. Instead, we went with what reporters call a "running story," which is just that — a story written as the game goes along. I lucked out and managed to develop two fairly decent ledes by 12:30 a.m. or so — one in case Waupun won and one in case West De Pere won.

The game ended at 2:07 a.m. and I had a copy of my story to the guys back in the office by 2:11 a.m. Once I got back to my apartment, I added quotes for the online version.