Ardmore players cheer from the dugout during a game against Elkmont earlier this season. The Tigers are the defending Limestone County tournament champions. The tournament begins today at East Limestone, with the championship game set for 9:30 a.m. Saturday.

Softball fans around Limestone County will have quite a few less games to enjoy this weekend, as the Limestone County softball tournament has been shortened due to a conflict with East Limestone High School’s prom.

East Limestone is hosting the tournament, which begins today and was supposed to continue most of the day Saturday. However, the ELHS prom, which was supposed to take place last Saturday, was moved to this Saturday due to stormy weather that moved through the area last weekend.

That caused tournament organizers to change the original double-elimination format into a single-elimination format which will take place this afternoon and night, with the championship game Saturday morning.

“I think it’s disappointing for the players,” Ardmore coach Stephen Baugh said. “For us, we’ve already lost two Saturdays in tournaments due to rain. We haven’t even played a lot of our games in tournaments. You could just play one game in this tournament and then be out. But it is what it is.”

The tournament will begin at 3 p.m. today with No. 3 seed East Limestone taking on sixth-seeded Tanner. Fourth-seeded Clements will then take on No. 5 seed Elkmont at 5 p.m.

The night portion of the tournament begins at 7 p.m. with the winner of the 3 p.m. game taking on No. 2 seed West Limestone in the first tournament semifinal. The second semifinal follows at 9 p.m. and features the winner of the 5 p.m. game taking on top seed Ardmore.

The tournament championship game will take place 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The seeds are based on last year’s tournament results.

Ardmore is the defending champion of the tournament. Baugh said he hopes the county tournament will be a catalyst for his team to show improvement going into the area and regional tournaments.

“We’ve got a good record, but we haven’t clicked like I think we should click and play to our potential,” Baugh said. “Hopefully we can start doing that, or it will be a short postseason.”

A lack of tournament games may be a reason for that.

“For our regular season games, we’ve been fortunate, because we have a tarp we can cover the infield with, but with tournaments, there’s not much you can do. You hate it, but you can’t control it.”

While Ardmore’s big goal is to get back to the state tournament and improve on last season’s fourth place finish, winning the county tournament again would be a huge accomplishment, Baugh said.

“We’ve got some really good teams in this county,” he said. “We hope we can win it, and if we do, we’ll take a lot of pride in it. It’s a prestigious trophy, and all the teams want to win it, so we’ll see what happens.”