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The Valley Parks and Recreation Center is preparing to host a six team softball league for adults.

The league will start next week and include teams from Chambers County and even as far as Auburn. Each team will play two games every Thursday night for the next six weeks.

Mark Hudmon, the athletic manager for Valley Parks and Recreation, is preparing the fields for this league.

“Last year, we had six teams,” Hudmon said. “That’s pretty good considering you have a league in Columbus going on and a league in Auburn. Sometimes even West Point has a league. To get six teams with all that is pretty good.”

All the games will be held at the Valley Sportsplex. The league will also feature some interesting rules.

“We do five home runs. When the batter steps into the batter’s box, the count is one and one,” Hudmon said. “If he fouls off the third strike, he gets another. We have a time limit. The game ends after either an hour or seven innings. We have run rules. If you’re up by 20 runs after three innings or 15 after four innings or 10 after five innings, that constitutes the ball game.”

The league held a manager’s meeting last night to discuss the rules of the league and how the teams will be arranged.

“We get people in from LaGrange to Auburn and even Columbus,” Hudmon said. “All these guys play together on the weekend, and they like to play together during the week. They have buddies that are spread out. They all come in and play here.”

All the games will start at 7 p.m. ET to give everyone time to get off work. 

The league is more for men who have been playing together for awhile.

“It’s almost a bond of guys that just stick together,” Hudmon said. “People that don’t know these people reach out to me and ask me if I know someone who plays softball. I take their name down and discuss that with them.”

The fee to enter the league is $350 per team, and that covers 12 games, the umpire fees, the softballs and awards at the end of the season.

Each player is responsible for bringing their own equipment, which includes bats and clothing.

Hudmon doesn’t plan on having a postseason tournament, but he’s not ruling it out.

“If it comes down to where we have to have a playoff or season ending tournament, we’ll do one of the two,” Hudmon said. “You just have to see how the interest is toward the end of the season. Sometimes it falls off and sometimes it’s just as strong as it was at the beginning.”

This will be the Valley Parks and Recreation’s last summer league before all the fall leagues kick off.