Class C/Rec Grand-Slam Program Information and Details:
Here is some background on these events. We get teams that form every fall that are very new to travel softball. Many either played in a Rec League program or have no Rec program in their area to play in, so they form a team and sign up for travel ball events. They get in events and just do not either have the pitching or player development to compete at the beginner level, and the team ends up falling apart or worse the players end of giving the sport up altogether.
Ohio USSSA is starting a C/Rec program with a series of events for teams to enter to improve their skills. Those details and rules will be below.
C/Rec Grand-Slam Program Information:
There will be 4 events (called Legs) and a Grand-Slam finale that is an Invitational event. These will start up Mother’s Day weekend (May 9-10,2026) and conclude with the final leg event on June 19-21, 2026, weekend at Pickerington Central High School. The winner and runner-up of each leg will qualify to play in the Grand-Slam Invitational Finale the weekend of July 11-12, 2026, at Riverside Park-Zanesville, OH. Each event will cost $375 with the Finale costing $425.
- Each of the 4 leg events are limited to 6-8 teams’ total. The format will be 2 pool games on Saturday, and single-Elim bracket play on Sunday. This way the most games pitched would be 2 on Saturday and 3 on Sunday.
- The top 2 teams in each of the legs will be qualified to play in the Grand-Finale on July 11-12, 2026. These two teams will be locked from playing in the remaining leg events. This way we will be guaranteed to fill all 8 spots up.
- If the top 2 qualifying teams are entered in other remaining leg events, those two teams will be given the option to move to another USSSA Class C event that same weekend but will be responsible for the increase in entry fees.
- Each Leg event will feature MVP awards for pool play along with a tournament MVP award. Players in the events will still be eligible for post-season events like the Ohio All-State Games and The Buckeye Games along with USSSA’s National All-State Games.
- Each Leg event will also have a “theme” like other USSSA events on the schedule that weekend. i.e. May 9-10,2026 is Mother’s Day, and the theme is pink, and the awards will be pink themed also.
- The Grand-Finale will feature the same 2-pool/single-Elim format but will also have additional awards like All-tournament team selections along with MVP and Outstanding Pitcher, etc. We may also do some fun things like skill’s challenges, bat raffles, hair braiding, a dunk tank, etc.
C/Rec Event Rules and Procedures:
Teams will still petition to classify at the C level by posting their roster online. My office will evaluate and make the determination on class C or Rec. Teams classified at Rec are still able to enter class B & C events but teams at Class C cannot enter events classified as Rec. Teams can sign up for events normally online and pay, etc. We do use rules that are very close to our normal class C rules with some additional modifications.
That list of rules can be found here: C/Rec Tournament Rules.
The listing of events is lower on this page with direct links to the events for the Grand-Slam Series. Feel free to take a look inside each event to be up to date on this new program for the central Ohio area.
