The Babe Ruth Southeast Regional softball tournament was postponed Thursday afternoon due to inclement weather.

At approximately 5:30 p.m. lightning and rain put a halt to the games that were in progress at the Andalusia Sports Complex.

“We’ve postponed (Thursday night’s) games and we’ll start (today) at 8 o’clock (a.m.),” tournament director Dwight Mikel said. “We’ll pick up and play all day long (today) rather than starting at 11:30 a.m. as expected. We’ll start at 8 a.m. and make up the six games that we lost (Thursday).”

Mikel said the 4 p.m. games that were postponed on Thursday will start at 8 a.m. today; the 5:30 p.m. games will start at 9:30 a.m.; and the 7 p.m. games on Thursday will start at 11 a.m. today.

“We’ll start the original schedule about an hour and 15 minutes late, but it was the best thing to try and do this,” he said. “We’ve just got a nice little load of rain on us.”

Mikel said the weather outlook for today is looking like there will be rain in the afternoon.

“There’s a pretty good chance of rain,” Mikel said. “Usually the mornings are reasonably clear and the afternoons are rainy.

“So, if we can get (today’s) games in at least in the morning, than we may have to start early again on Saturday. I think Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be a lot prettier.”

Despite the rain, Mikel said the tournament has gone well, even though five teams did not show up to play.

“Well, we’re a little bit disappointed in our numbers of participating teams,” he said. “We’re down about five from the same age groups as last year. Virtually all of those were in the 18-and-under age group. We’ve got two of those teams here.

“Other than that, the crowds have been reasonably good,” he said. “It’s just been a disappointment that the economy has gotten to a point where so many families where they can’t afford to travel.”