If you enjoy high school baseball and want to see the area's top juniors and most of the best senior players from the WPIAL, then Burkett Field in Robinson Township is the place to be Saturday.

West Penn Baseball Prospects All-Star weekend gets under way at 7 p.m. tomorrow with an awards banquet at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe. The affair will honor players selected to play in the all-star doubleheader as well as players and coaches of the year in the WPIAL's four classifications.

The Underclassmen Showcase for 2009 graduates begins at 8 a.m. Saturday. Players will have an opportunity to show off their arms, speed in the 60-yard dash and hitting ability for college and professional scouts.

The all-star doubleheader begins at 5 p.m. Saturday with the Class A All-Stars taking on the Class AA All-Stars. That game will be followed by Class AAA vs. Class AAAA. Both games will be seven innings. The rain date for the doubleheader is Sunday.

The interesting part of the all-star games is that players will use wooden bats instead of the customary metal.

"It'll be different for the players," said Serra Catholic coach Brian Dzurenda, who has conducted wooden bat weekend tournaments. "Players won't be able to use that lazy, looping swing that they can get away with using metal bats. With a wooden bat there's a smaller sweet spot."

West Allegheny coach Bryan Cornell said many of the players in the all-star game will have to be reminded about having the trademark on the wooden bats face them while hitting.

With medal bats it doesn't matter how they are held, but with a wooden bat it makes a difference. Hit a baseball on the trademark of a wooden bat and it might shatter.

"We have wooden fungo bats that we use in practice and we have to remind the players to keep the trademark up when using them," Cornell said. "For some of our guys the closest they have come to using a wooden bat is the composite ones we use in practice and those are different from a wooden bat.

"But I think it's a good idea to have the players use wooden bats in a game like this. It'll make it more interesting."

Zak Sinclair of West Allegheny has been selected the Class AAA Player of the Year and Manny Cutlip of Beaver as the Class AA Player of the Year.

Sinclair was 6-1 on the mound with 0.70 ERA and 63 strikeouts in 40 innings during the regular season. He also hit .382 with eight homers and 21 RBIs.

Cutlip hit .689 in the regular season with five home runs and 33 RBIs. As a pitcher he was 5-0 with a 0.29 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 44 innings, with just seven walks.

Players from the PG West edition circulation area selected to play in the all-star doubleheader are:

• Class AAA: Eric Poplowski, Ambridge Area; Tim Lipp, Blackhawk; and Derrik Zeroski and Sinclair of West Allegheny.

• Class AA: Nico Baldelli and Justin King, Riverside; Brian Billigen, Bishop Canevin; Alex George and Cutlip, Beaver; Nate DeFilippi, Center; and Anthony Lamont, South Side Beaver;.

• Class A: Jimmy Battaglia, Rochester; Andrew DeSalle, OLSH; Josh Himes and Brian McClain, Monaca; and Matt Korzen, Cornell.

Center coach Paul DeFilippi and South Fayette's James Barton will help coach the Class AA stars. Cornell will work with the Class AAA squad.