The hot and humid weather didn’t prevent community members from playing some ball at the Mexico Optimist Ball Fields.

Mushball, that is.

The Mexico Optimist Club hosted a mushball tournament for the second straight year, providing people the chance to have some fun on the Fourth of July.

Mushball is similar to softball but uses a larger and softer ball and is played in five-inning games with some slightly different rules, like starting with an 1-1 count and a strike being determined by whether the ball bounces on the plate.

“It’s fun,” Dustin Null, of the Mexico Optimist Club, said. “It’s the same rules as softball to an extent. They’re quicker games. It’s just for fun. It’s not super competitive. There’s no payout. It’s a fundraiser for the Optimist Club.”

Null recalls playing in the first tournament and said the event was hosted by the now-defunct Mexico Sports Authority, using the optimist fields rented to it, before the league continued the tradition.

Four teams competed in the tournament that started at 10 a.m. Afterwards, the club held a cornhole tournament, a barbecue and had emergency vehicles from the Audrain County Sheriff's Office, Little Dixie Fire Protection District and MU-1 in Moberly prior to fireworks put on by the Mexico Noon Lions Club at dark. The concession stand opened around midday and closed not long before the fireworks.

“That was something new this year,” Null said. “We had MU-1 come in, we had Little Dixie Fire Department bring an apparatus down and Audrain County Sheriff’s Department brought a sheriff’s car down and let the kids look at them and wander around them. It’s something else for the kids to do and get involved in. Kids like stuff like that, and that’s what we’re working for.”

The club will continue to put on a summer league for baseball, softball and T-ball, giving children from across the area a chance to stay active during the summer.