Baseball is a funny game, fictional slugger Crash Davis noted in the movie "Bull Durham:"

Some days you win, some days you lose, some days it rains.

Or, as in the case of Sequim Baseball U-18, sometimes it rains enough to flood your batting cages.

That’s what co-owners Dan Perry and Kevin Royall found when they visited their facility at 775 W. Washington St. on Jan. 8, a day after rains drenched the Olympic Peninsula.

What they found was water deep enough that it pooled in the storage room, seeped deep into the green, turf-like carpet and all the way from the back toward the front door.

On the way, it soaked equipment bags, chalk and other items.

"You can still smell the mildew," Royall said, looking around the facility last month.

The co-owners spent the better part of three days drying the turf with fans.

Perry said he thinks the damage is not from just rain but a backed-up irrigation ditch just behind the batting cage building.

Perry sent a letter on behalf of the business to Pete Cameron, Sequim Prairie Tri Irrigation Association director, asking for compensation.

"(That) water was all storm water, and the ditch association has no liability to that," Cameron said. "We keep that ditch shut off during the wintertime."

Cameron said Perry and Royall can apply for federal dollars and referred Perry’s complaint to County Commissioner Steve Tharinger.

The damage is a hit to the nonprofit business, one that is open five week nights and Saturday each week.

Perry said Sequim Baseball lost eight-10 business days of operation thanks to the water damage and estimates losses at about $4,000.

The co-owners lease the steel building and still are paying for the carpet that’s now soaked and frayed from water damage.

The building, Royall noted, is a 4,500-square-foot, not watertight, steel structure and therefore susceptible to more water damage.

Sequim Baseball houses three hitting cages, four hitting stations and four pitching mounds.

Michael Dashiell can be reached at miked@sequim gazette.com.