The local Little League baseball scene will soon begin its summer all-star tournament schedule, but that’s not the only youth baseball gig around.

The Baseball Player’s Association will host its fourth annual Rapid Fire Classic this weekend at Ephram White Park – with the top three finishers in each age division automatically qualifying for the upcoming BPA State Tournament and World Series.

“We expect to have about 20 to 25 teams this weekend,” tournament director Dion Dull said. “We do lose some teams to the Little League All-Star tournaments, but we expect it to go well.

“Bowling Green has always treated us very nice and this is our third year down there, so we expect it to run smooth.”

The tournament – which is put on in conjunction with Total Fitness Connection and the Owensboro-based D&B Sporting Events – will feature three age divisions: a coach-pitch 8-year-old and under division, a 10-and-under division and an 11-and-under division.

All teams begin pool play at 9 a.m. Saturday and will continue throughout the day. The teams will then be seeded by pool results and put into a single elimination tournament Sunday.

Each division will then get three bids to advance to the state and World Series levels. All state tournaments will be held in Owensboro at a later date. The BPA 8-, 10- and 12-year-old division World Series will also be held in Owensboro later this summer, while the 11-year-olds will play their World Series in Warsaw, Ind.

Area teams competing in the event will be the Franklin-Simpson 8-year-olds, the 10-and-under Kentucky Young Guns, the Southern Kentucky Sluggers 11-and-under group as well as the 8-and-under Bulldogs Baseball club team.

In addition, Dull said teams from across Kentucky and into Tennessee will take part in the event.

With high-level travel teams from across the state participating, Dull said he expects competition to be just as high as what is normally seen in an area Little League tournament.

“We’ve got teams from Owensboro, from Bowling Green, some Tennessee teams, some from the northern part of the state and really all over Kentucky,” Dull said. “This is a little bit higher-caliber ball than what you might see in a Little League all-star tournament because they’re confined to what they have within their own league – whereas travel baseball brings the best kid from this city and the best from another.

“Primarily what you have at a travel level is the best kids from five, six or seven leagues – so the caliber of play can be even higher.”