The 23rd Lady Owls Choo Choo Classic high school softball tournament scheduled this weekend at The Summit of Softball Complex has been reduced to a one-day competition because of heavy rain Friday.
The tournament was supposed to begin Friday afternoon at 4:30 with the start of 18 pool-play games. Norma Nelson, coach of host team Ooltewah, said she was on the phone with coaches throughout the afternoon Friday and recalled a few calls being around 3:30.
“I was telling them, ‘If it quits lightning, we’re going to get the fields ready,'” Nelson said. “It was sprinkling, but everybody else said it was raining hard where they were. Then about 15 minutes later it came a downpour.”
The teams will now be split into six three-team pools. Pool play is scheduled to begin today at 10:30 a.m.
On the original schedule today’s action was set to start at 9, but Nelson said after conferring with local umpire assigner Terry Cordell and an authority at The Summit, a decision was made to delay the start.