The City of Ruston is getting ready for a crush of visitors starting Friday as they host a “triple-header” of an NCAA Regional Tournament, a softball tournament, and the Peach Festival.
Ruston won the hosting rights for the regional after LA Tech’s inspiring 40-18 season, just two years after seeing their stadium destroyed by a massive tornado and having to play games on a high school field. Mayor Ronny Walker said the whole city is proud of what the team has been able to accomplish and will be packing the new “Love Shack”.
“That’s a ticket that is going to be really hard to get, I think they are already sold out,” said Walker who noted while the tornado was tragic it did have a silver lining when recovery and insurance funds facilitated the building of a new sports complex. “We knew that if we could build a sports complex that our weekends would be busy and we are seeing that now. We are having between three to five thousand visitors into our city every weekend.”
The NCAA Regional in Ruston opens Friday with NC State and Alabama playing at 1 PM and Tech and Rider starting at 6 PM.
On top of the regionals, 50 girls’ softball teams will travel into town and tourists from around the region will be enjoying the famed Peach Festival, both events starting Saturday. Walker said the whole city is preparing to show you their best.
“Enjoy the shops and the restaurants, we have great shopping in Ruston and great food so you got just about everything that you could want,” said Walker.
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