Word of mouth brings new teams to premier tournament

Word of mouth has led another softball team into the Kelso Klassic for the first time.

The Texas Stars will make their tournament debut 8 p.m. Friday against the host Kelso Fast-pitch team, marking the first time a team from the Lone Star State has played in the tournament.

The Memphis Gamblers are another first-time entry, while Graff Pepsi of Brookfield, Mo., is back after playing just one game last year before rain postponed and ultimately modified the tournament.

A field of 14 teams will take part in the 22nd annual event, which begins Friday and continues through Sunday.

The tournament is able to draw teams from throughout the Midwest simply by word of mouth, said tournament director Rick Heuring.

"We put on a quality tournament, and people want to be a part of it," Heuring said. "People around the country who play fast-pitch softball know about Kelso because of the professionalism, the facilities and the way we run things.

"The tournament gets bigger every year. It's a tradition. Kelso is still a hot bed for fast-pitch softball."

Not many hot beds still exist, Heuring admits. But the Kelso area does its part to keep the sport alive, he said. A four-team league plays on Wednesdays throughout the summer.

Kelso will have two teams hosting this weekend's event -- Kelso Fast-pitch and Jamco Transportation, which plays 9:30 p.m. Friday.

"It's a great sport and we'd like to see it continue," Heuring said. "The young kids don't like to hang out in the hot sun."

But just about everyone in Kelso will be hanging out at the fields at some point between Friday night and Sunday afternoon.

The marquee game Friday pits Kelso Fast-pitch against the Texas Stars, who were the ASA men's masters national champions in 2003 and the runner-up in 2005.

"They're pretty good, from what I understand," Heuring said. "You have to be a pretty salty team to win a national championship."

Heuring said the Stars contacted him last fall about playing in the event. Pitcher Bobby Smith, a softball pitching instructor in the Houston area, had played in the Kelso Klassic as a member of the Arkansas Rangers in 1992 and started the ball rolling to get the Stars in the event.

The Gamblers were lured into the event by the positive word-of-mouth from two other Memphis teams that are returning for another run: the Memphis Pomen and the Memphis Posse.

Among the other teams in the field returning for a shot at the title: defending champ Lee's Sports Falcons from Radom, Ill., which finally won last year's crown in August; Nokomis, Ill., Bud Light, which has finished first or second in the event 11 times; and The Freight of Vandalia, Ill., last year's ASA Class B national champions.

Lee's Sports, with 2006 tourney Most Valuable Pitcher Mark Radake and Most Valuable Player Ryan Colle, will be the opponent for Jamco Transportation in Friday's 9:30 p.m. game.

They won the event last year with a perfect record, including a tie score in the championship game that was halted by lightning. The 2005 event, which had been pushed back from June due to the weather, originally featured the New Zealand 19-and-under team that was traveling to an international tournament in Canada and had heard about the Kelso Klassic from a player's uncle who lived in St. Louis.

One other part of the tournament that has become a tradition: Rain has affected the tournament schedule 17 of the last 18 years.