HUTCHINSON, Kan. – It was late last summer that the Hutchinson Rec Commission and the city 
banded together and turned over operations of the Fun Valley Complex and Hobart Detter field to the Rec. Since then they have been working to improve the climate of the baseball and softball tournaments held nearly every weekend.
Tony Finlay of Hutch Rec says they have been working to bring the quality of the tournament up to a high level and that they hope will bring more teams back to Hutchinson. The numbers are playing a bigger role this year as they will be used in a study that was requested by the parks deportment and the Rec Commission to study the needs of the city’s sports facilities.
Finlay says so far it has been a good spring with four youth baseball tournaments with a total of 82 teams participating, and two youth softball tournaments with a total of 29 teams. There was also one adult softball tournament with 26 teams. The best part of those numbers is that 98% of the teams were from out of town, according to numbers released by the Rec Commission.
Finlay says 22 teams are expected in Hutchinson this weekend for the Stars and Stripes baseball tournament.