The Jackson County Central softball team is hosting the Shelly Hotzler Invitational tournament on Saturday.
Hotzler coached the Huskies to back-to-back championships in 2004 and 2005, state tournaments appearances in four of the six years from 2000-2005, and collected 323 wins during her 19 seasons as head coach.
The Huskies begin with Albert Lea at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday. The 0-11 Tigers are looking to snap a 13-game regular-season losing streak but did go 1-2 in the postseason last year. The next Huskies game after that will be against either Chatfield or Glencoe-Silver Lake with an 11:00 a.m. first pitch. The 9-5 Gophers have won six straight games and the 4-9 Panthers have won three straight entering Saturday.
Kimball Area, New York Mills, Pipestone Area, and Worthington complete the eight-team tournament on Saturday.
The 15-1 Cubs are receiving votes in the latest Class AA coaches poll. The 9-7 Eagles have won three of their last five games. The 7-9 Arrows have split their last six games including a doubleheader sweep by JCC. The 0-15 Trojans are looking to snap a 24-game regular-season losing streak but went 2-2 in the postseason last year.
The fifth-place and seventh-place games begin at 3:00 p.m. The championship and third-place games are at 5:00 p.m. with all of the action happening at the JCC Softball Complex.