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 and wooden bats will be used instead of metal bats. The rain date for the doubleheader is Sunday.

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

"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."

Bethel Park High School coach Jim Rider estimated that about half of the players selected for the all-star game have used a wooden bat in a game at some point.

"Some of the fall leagues use them and there are wooden bat tournaments a lot of these players have been in," Rider said. "These could be quick games with the quality of the pitching."

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."

Mike Devine of Springdale has been named the Class A Player of the Year and Cory Mazzoni of Seneca Valley was the Class AAAA Player of the Year.

It was the second consecutive year Mazzoni was named player of the year in Class AAAA.

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

• Class AAAA: Dave Duffett, North Allegheny; Ryan Fairbrother, North Hills; Tim Geibel, Butler; Kyle Helisek and Mazzoni, Seneca Valley; and Taylor Juran and Eddie Skonieczny, Shaler.

• Class AAA: Lee Lawver, Mars; Cory McGinnis and Steve Van Atta, Hampton.

• Class AA: James Connelly, Deer Lakes; Dustin Lalle, North Catholic; and Drew Singer, Shady Side Academy.

• Class A: Devine, Springdale; Brad Duffy and Joe Rukas, Vincentian; Seth Libby, Sewickley Academy;

Ron Del Duca of Sewickley Academy is one of the four coaches for the Class A All-Star squad.