For many organizations, hosting a tournament with 23 teams would be quite an undertaking.

For the Vicksburg Baseball Association, it’s a dress rehearsal.

The 14th annual Governor’s Cup gets underway tonight at 6 at Halls Ferry Park with 23 teams competing in four age groups. Teams in the 7-, 9-, 11- and 14-year-olds’ age groups will play this weekend.

Next Friday is when the tournament really gets cranked up, though. Six age groups – the 5-and-6-year-olds and 16-and-under, along with the 8-, 10-, 12-, and 13-year-olds’ divisions – and 40 more teams will play next weekend.

“The first weekend is always kind of a primer, and the next one is the big one. You work all of the bugs out the first weekend,” said Darrell Evans, president of the Vicksburg Baseball Association and tournament director for the Governor’s Cup.

This is the tournament’s 11th year in Vicksburg after three years in Madison, and the VBA has grown it from a small baseball event into a monster.

In 1995, only 31 teams competed. This year, nearly 70 teams will participate.

“They start calling us as soon as their regular league seasons are over,” Evans said of interested teams.

With growth, though, comes some headaches. Scheduling so many games on only seven fields, while avoiding schedule conflicts and putting teams in back-to-back games in the summer heat, can be a logistical nightmare.

The schedule in most age groups usually isn’t finalized until just a few days before the tournament begins. Even then, teams sometimes try to drop out or jump in at the last minute, creating even more problems.

“It’s not difficult. It’s not rocket science. But you do have to pay attention,” Evans said of making out a workable schedule.

The weather can also play havoc with the tournament. While organizers have found ways to work around the 90-degree July heat over the years, rain can bring the action on the field to a grinding halt.

By rule, any lightning delay must last at least 45 minutes. Throw one or two of those into a packed schedule where teams are guaranteed three games, and it can make for a long night.

Several years ago, rain delays pushed the conclusion of some Saturday games back to nearly 1 a.m. Another year, thunderstorms forced the cancellation of several championship games on Sunday evening, while another didn’t start until 9 p.m.

“That’s something that’s always a problem. That’s every tournament director’s nightmare,” Evans said. “You just let everybody know that you’ll make changes as you need to, and sometimes you make them on the fly.”