Published: July 03, 2008 11:49 pm         

Logansport hosting NSA World Series qualifier

Twenty-nine teams will be playing in tournament this weekend.

The city will be invaded by over 300 softball players this coming weekend as Logansport will play host to 29 teams competing in an NSA World Series qualifying tournament.

When play comes to an end early Sunday evening, eight of those teams will have earned berths to the NSA national tournament in East Peoria, Ill.

NSA Assistant State Director Bob Peconga expects over 1,000 people to be coming to town for this tournament. Earlier this week he received a call from a team telling him that they could not stay local as there were no rooms left for his team. They will be staying nearby in Peru.

Peconga is appreciative of local businesses that have sent welcome letters to the participating teams telling them about their establishments and to the chamber of commerce for providing maps and directions to the playing venues. Mr. Peconga also stated that Jan Fawley has agreed to extend city pool hours on the 5th for those participating in the tournament and their families.

Teams playing this weekend will be coming from Fort Wayne, South Bend, Anderson, Alexandria, Valparaiso and Lafayette just to name a few. There will also be teams coming to play from the Chicago area. Games will be played in the 12-and-under age group as well as 14U and 16U.

Some of the local girls playing on the 16U team Wild Thangz will be Brittany Berkshire from Logansport, Mallory Cummings and Brooke Hill from Lewis Cass, and Danielle Howell and Meghan Myers from North Miami. Wild Thangz recently finished fifth in the NSA state tournament and according to Peconga several of the teams that played for state championships are in this tourney.

Since the expansion of four more fields at the AIM park, NSA and Logansport have played host to several tournaments and will be playing host to two more, one on Labor Day weekend and another one in October. According to Peconga, “We are seriously attempting to get an NSA state tournament here for next year and we are currently looking at hosting seven others.”

Numerous games will be played at the AIM park with others being played at Fincher Field and Tower Park. Games at all venues will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. The last games of the day are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. to give the athletes a chance to venture into the community for recreation, shopping and dining opportunities.