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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)- The skies cleared on Saturday and the umpires could shout play ball. The USSSA 12 year-old state tournament has drawn 37 teams from around the state, and with 12 boys per team, plus an average of two fans per boy, that means over 1,300 participants are in town.

“A tournament like this economic impact we’re looking over 50-thousand economic impact so we’re thankful and grateful for USSSA allowing Tupelo to be the host site for this tournament,” says Michael Rucker.

“These fields were built to bring people in from the community from out of state to help out plus our parks and rec league plays here at these fields as well. so we’re looking to keep the growth of baseball going on, keeping tournaments coming in through the city and keeping the impact going,” says Alex Wilcox.

Tourney site director David Cheney says some teams have come from very far away to play at this facility in other events hosted here.

“We’ve had teams from Kentucky. We’ve had teams from Tennessee, Arkansas, I believe they’re have been Alabama to come here a neutral location north Mississippi which is kind of right in there together with all the other states. They come in here. They draw and they’re able to compete with other levels of competition with the other players,” says David Cheney.

The baseball complex here at Ballard Park is ideal for USSSA tournaments. The fields in use this weekend have outfields that are suitable for 12-year olds, while other fields not in use have shorter fences designed for younger players.

“A 12U is a great group because we’ve got the 5 field complex that can hold that well. We’d love to have any age group that’s offered to us but the 12U has been here the past several years and that’s always been a good age group for Tupelo to have,” says  Larry Hazel.

And the fans really enjoy the facility. Larry Hazelwood of West Point came up to watch the Possum Town Sluggers, from Columbus.

“I’m glad they hosted the tournament here. Nice facility up here and we had no problems with it, a nice concession stand, facilities are nice, very good. We played some in a Starkville facility a couple of weeks ago and this one to me is much better than the one at Starkville,” says  Hazel.

The Tupelo Convention and Visitors Bureau say the total tourism dollars for sporting events throughout the year is in excess of 5-million dollars.