The end of the summer baseball tournament known as the Governor’s Cup continues to grow in popularity.

While the vast number of youth baseball players have hung up their gloves and await the start of school, 86 teams will descend on Vicksburg’s Halls Ferry Park over the next two weekends.

Play begins today in five age divisions: 5-6, 7-8, 9, 11 and 13-year-old.

Next week will see play in the 7-, 10-, 12-, 14- and 16-year-olds’ divisions. The big growth, according to Vicksburg Baseball Association President Charlie Camillo, has been with the 10s and 12s.

&#8220We’ve had to turn people away in those divisions. They are a lot of people who still want to play and one of the things we’ve learned is to no longer have the 10s and 12s in the same weekend,” Camillo said.

That’s because they are 15 teams in 12-under bracket and 14 in the 10-under division.

&#8220Our best customers for this tournament have come from the Delta, both in Mississippi and over by Monroe. What you find is that in the smaller towns its easier to put together a team of just 10s or 12s rather than say, just a 9- and 11-year-olds’ clubs. What you also find is a lot of teams are combining their teams,” Camillo said.

&#8220Since there is no league sanction like a Cal Ripken, USSSA, or Dixie Youth, you can do that. Just grab 12 together and go. That’s what makes this the toughest tournament out there,” Camillo said.

Three of the VBA’s most successful teams will not be in the tournament. The Vicksburg Mudcats, an 11-year-olds’ all-star team, began play Thursday with a win in the Cal Ripken Southwest Regional in Denham Springs, La. The Vicksburg Vemon, an 8-year-old team, is at a Ripken Southwest Regional in Van Buren, Ark.

Also. the Vicksburg Patriots are not in the 9s after finishing 6th out of 18 teams at a Southwest Regional last week in Arkansas. While the Patriots may not be here, a good number of their players are playing this week.

&#8220The Patriots are done but the VBA team this weekend is called the Red Sox, but more than half the team is made up of the Patriots,” Camillo said.

It’s a core group that has played three straight state or regional level tournaments in the past month which included a second place finish at the Ripken State Tournament in Hurley.

The Red Sox open play against Meridian tonight at 6 on National Field.

The Vicksburg Colonels will represent the city in the 13-year-olds’ division. They finished third at the Babe Ruth State Tournament in Meridian, going 2-2 two weeks ago. The Colonels open against the Clinton Arrows at 11 a.m. on Saturday on the Babe Ruth Field.

In the 5-6 division, Vicksburg is represented by its USSSA State Champions in the Vicksburg Tide. The Tide opens play at 9 a.m. Saturday against Washington County.

The lone local team in the 8-year-olds’ tournament will be the Warren County Warriors.