Tracy Press

A regional softball tournament will call the Tracy Sports Complex home starting Thursday.

High school softball teams will converge at the Tracy Sports Complex this week for one of the biggest preseason tournaments this year.

The NorCal Classic Tournament, now in its fifth year, will have the most teams yet with 48 varsity and 20 sophomore teams. They will play on the four fields at the sports complex, 955 Crossroads Drive, and at West High and Northgate Park in Manteca.

Tournament organizer Charlie Pikas, former coach of the West High School softball team and now coach of the Los Banos softball team, said the tournament draws teams from around the San Joaquin Valley and will also bring groups from out of the area and out of state.

Both West and Tracy high school girls varsity and sophomore teams will participate in the "platinum" varsity bracket, the most competitive of three brackets that will also include "gold" and "silver" levels, making sure every team will have competitive games.

"It’s a good preview for teams with playoff aspirations," he said, adding that the original intent of the tournament was to give teams a chance to face off against leading teams from other leagues.

The varsity teams will begin play at the sports complex at 9 a.m. Thursday and will continue play into the evening. Games will continue all day Friday, with the championship game for the silver bracket at 11 a.m. that day. Saturday’s games include the championship for the gold bracket at 1 p.m. and for the platinum bracket at 3 p.m.

Some silver bracket and consolation games will be played at the West High varsity and sophomore fields, and all the sophomore games will be at Northgate Park in Manteca. The championship game for the sophomores will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at Northgate Park.

Pikas said the tournament was able to allow more teams to sign up because the city cleared its adult softball schedule for the second part of the week to free up the fields.

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