It’s hard to set records every year. At the Governor’s Cup, however, average is still pretty darn good.

A total of 89 teams have registered for the 2009 edition of Vicksburg’s premiere youth baseball event, which starts Friday night at 6 at Halls Ferry Park. The total number of teams is slightly off last year’s record-setting total of 103, but still in line with the average of the past four years.

Since 2006, at least 86 teams have played in the tournament each year. Tournament director Jeff Collins cited a variety of reasons for the slight dropoff this year, ranging from a later starting date to the economy. “It’s going to be between 80 and 90 teams. It seems down a little bit. Maybe it’s the economy and travel,” Collins said. “There’s a lot of schools that are pretty heavy into football. Some teams might have a problem starting on Friday night because of football.”

Although the total number of teams are down, the most popular age groups are going strong. Thirteen teams have registered for this weekend’s 8-and-under tournament, and 14 in the 9-and-under division. Next weekend, 10 teams have signed up in the 10-and-under bracket and 14 in the 12-and-under division.

Capacity for those age groups at Halls Ferry Park is between 12 and 16 teams.

“Some age groups are closed, or close to being closed, because those are full. Some we’ll let go a little longer,” Collins said.

A bigger concern than how many teams are playing this weekend is whether they’ll even get to play. Close to four inches of rain has fallen on Halls Ferry Park since Sunday, including 2 1/2 inches on Wednesday alone, according to a weather station installed at the park by the City of Vicksburg.

There’s an 80 percent chance of more storms tonight and 60 percent Friday night, and a 30 percent chance on Saturday and Sunday. Collins said a final decision will be made Friday morning.

“We don’t have any changes as of right now. We told teams we’re going to try and let them know in the morning if we’re going to play,” Collins said today. “We have everybody’s e-mail and we’ll try to let them know before they get on the road.”

Tournament organizers might catch a break with the schedule. Only two of the five age groups playing this weekend, the 8- and 9-year-olds, are scheduled to start on Friday. The 6-, 11-, and 14-year-olds don’t begin play until Saturday morning.

That would mean a Friday rainout would lead to the rescheduling of just nine games. Last year, when the opening night was washed out by thunderstorms, 20 games had to be crammed into a full schedule the next day.

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com